Angel of Darkness
by Saunga1
Summary: Cross Infinitus is unlike anyone Kyanna Delrio has ever met. He's nice,considerate, relatively good looking, and not human! Add in the fact that he's got a haunted past and her own friends, and enemies alike, are beginning to take a shine to him and they're both in for drama. Toss in a love fairy, a love goddess, a same-age mentor, and a few archangels and things can only get nuts.
1. Chapter 1 What I Am

**Just fair warning: My story is, while related to the overall 'dating' concept of the game, meant for readers whom are not afraid to experience the Huniepop story from an utterly different perspective.**

 **Hi there, before I get to the story I just wanna mention a few things before regarding things like my plot type and such.**

 **First off, for now its rated T. But depending of the story progression it my become M.**

 **Okay so, anyone whose played Huniepop knows that while most of the game tends to lean towards reality with a small touch of fiction, I (with an extremely vivid and overactive imagination) decided to toss that concept right out the window and just blow the whole mystical/supernatural part way out of left field.**

 **I personally excel at this type of 'genre' so I figured since this is my first story I'd dive in with a splash.**

 **I've read a few Huniepop stories posted by others and realized that not a single one had a route involving Kyanna. So I figured since we've got plenty of Audrey and Tiffany based stories and because Kyanna is my favorite; why not be the first one to post a story involving Kyanna.**

 **Okay, one last thing before we start; as stated earlier I've an extremely overactive imagination and since my specialty is fantasy/fiction, I'm gonna involve a few characters that are no where near being relative to the game itself and that these characters are unique on a level that makes even Kyu, Celeste, Momo, and Venus look... human.**

Ch.1 What I Am...

As a collage of painful memories cascaded before his eyes, Cross Infinitus reached out towards one such vision of an older woman falling to the ground, the handle of a small dagger protruding from her torso, but just as he was about to embrace this phantom woman, the pain of heartbreak overwhelmed his senses to the very center and darkness enveloped his vision.

Moments later, the light of day sent a momentarily searing pain through the back of Cross' eyes; as he winced and shielded his eyes with his right arm, his eyes began to adjust to the light of that mid-Spring day. Slowly lowering his arm till the back of his right hand rested on his slightly aching forehead, the twenty four year old Mexican-American sighed a breathe filled with both relief and a heavy tone of heartache.

"A dream," he muttered softly, the images of his nightmare burned deep into both his mind and his heart. As Cross wallowed in his misery for a moment, a few quick glances to his left and right revealed his was lying on his back beneath the shade of a tree and in the middle of patch of scorched grass. Pausing for a moment to gather his thoughts, Cross closed his eyes as he tried, with little success, to look pass his painful visions of the recent past and figure out exactly how he ended up in the middle of circle of scorched earth. As he pondered this, faint recollections of a confrontation between himself and two other men, both of whom he was fairly acquainted with, flashed before his mental eyes like a bombardment of paparazzi flashes. "Yeah, that's right," Cross said slowly opening his eyes as he dropped his arm to his side, "I fought Chris and Michael when they tried to stop me."

Just as the last words slipped passed his lips, the face of a small child appeared from the direction above Cross' head, giving the small child the appearance of being upside down. "Bir-ty!" cried the child with an obvious tone of childish glee. "'Birdie'? Does this kid mean me?" Cross thought to himself and he momentarily contemplated the meaning behind the child's misspoken word.

"Bir-ty, bir-ty!" squealed the child excitedly as he clapped his hands together repeatedly. Crossed paused for a second, then slowed sat up and turned his body to face the child properly, "Birdie, huh? Now that I think about it, Chris did mention that small children are more spiritually pure than their elders, so it's not exactly uncommon for them to see things older people can't." Cross leaned forward and quietly asked the child, "You can see them, can't you?" The small child laughed playfully and clapped his hands together in utter glee; for a moment Cross almost believed that the child in front of him, no more than a year old at best, could actually understand what he was asking him. Of course such a thing was absolutely ludicrous. As Cross examined the child closer, he came to the conclusion that, based on his white and blue sailor outfit and his boyish haircut, the child was a boy.

"Alright little man, what are you doing here in the middle of this place all by yourself?" Cross asked rhetorically as he saw no one else around but the boy sitting in front of him. Cross slowly got to his feet and, placing his hands gently around the little boy's sides, lifted him off the ground and gently carried him on his left arm. It was then Cross noticed that there was something stitched onto the shirt of the boy's sailor uniform: Philip.

"Philip, huh? Is that your name?" Cross asked the boy half seriously, half playfully, "Well, Philip, you can call me Cross. Or at least you can, once you learn how to talk in complete sentences." Philip squealed joyfully at Cross' statement, oblivious to its entire meaning. Cross smiled softly at Philip and shifted his arm beneath the smiling child, while he wrapped wrapped his other arm around Philip's side and placed his hand gently on his back, securing the little child in his embrace. "Okay then, lets go find you're mommy and daddy," Cross said as he walked out from beneath the tree's shade and into the light of day, the small child cooing happily in his arms.

Realizing that Philip couldn't have waddled far on his own, Cross figured the boy's parents had to be somewhere in the immediate area; as the two left the shade of the grove of trees Cross took a moment to examine his surrounding. Judging by the number of wooden benches, covered trashcans, fences lining the edges of the cement paths, and the relatively large water fountain in the middle of an even larger clearing, Cross made a seemingly accurate presumption that he woke up in the middle of a park, or something remotely similar. Despite the fact that it appeared to be a little past high noon, the park was completely empty, no joggers, no other children, and apparently no families that had noticed they were at least one member short! "Seriously, what kind of slack-jawed moron doesn't even realize his kid is missing?!" Cross barked out loud, a genuine ring of surprise, shock, annoyance and disappointment dripping from tone; Philip, on the other hand, found some sort of humor in his escort's outburst, the child's innocence being the main reason behind this.

At that moment, Cross heard the faint shouting a woman nearby; considering that he couldn't make out what the shouting was, he figured she wasn't that close by. Though considering he didn't have a good bearing of his current location he figured finding someone was better than finding no one at all. So, Cross shifted his arms securely around Philip and made for the direction of the woman's shouting, his pace a little faster than it was moments ago. After about 2 or 3 minutes of walking brisk-fully down one of the parks pathways, Cross began to steadily make out the words being shouted. After about another minute of walking, Cross rounded the corner and came to a sudden stop; standing a good twenty or thirty feet away from him was a young woman who appeared to be looking for something frantically. She appeared to be relatively young, about 21 years old, she had long black hair that extended down to her hips which were covered by a pair of short navy blue pants. As the young woman turned about, Cross noticed she was also wearing a pale blue tank top with darker blue horizontal stripes; for the record this only bears mentioning since rather than the girl's clothes, Cross' attention was immediately drawn to her immaculate, curvaceous build, or more preciously her large bust. "Whoa, her's are huge!" Cross impulsively stated out loud, followed immediately by a quick scan of his immediate surroundings as to make sure no one heard him. Cross quickly cleared his throat, turned his head towards Philip and said, "Okay, little man, play it cool and we just may call it even for me helping you find your folks." Moments after Cross finished his childish statement, little Philip smiled, leaned forward with his arms stretched towards the young woman and happily cooed, "Ma...ma!"

"MAMA!?" Cross croaked in genuine shock, "that's your mama?" An air of disappointment suddenly fell on Cross' head as he almost considered praying that the kid was wrong. As Philip excitement began to get the better of him, Cross quickly set the toddler on his feet and followed closely behind him as he waddled towards his apparent parent; quickly approaching the young lady, Philip instinctively reached out and grabbed her by the hem of her pants causing her to turn and meet his gaze.

"PHILIP!" cried the young lady as she quickly knelt down and embraced the little boy at near break-neck speed, "Oh my God, baby, don't you ever scare me like that again!" She pulled herself back a few inches and, looking into the eyes of the clueless toddler began to cry, "Oh sweet heart, I thought I lost you. Please don't ever do that again!"

"So, she is your mother, huh?" Cross stated aloud as he walked up behind Philip, all the while hoping his apparent disappointment wasn't too obvious. Philip turned around to face his escort only to quickly run up to him and wrap his arms around Cross' left leg. His mother, in the mean time, stood up and paused for a moment as she processed the image of her one year old son hugging a stranger she was certain neither she nor he had ever met before. "Umm, are you the one who found my son?" she asked Cross, traces of suspicion and concern were obviously present in her tone. Cross turned his gaze from the toddler at his feet to the mother in front of him, "ah, yes; well to be more precise, it was he who found me, actually."

It was at that moment that Cross was able to get a good look at the young lady; she was certainly young for a mother, younger then himself by the looks of it, and perhaps because of this it became more apparent to Cross just how attractive the young mother was. Her dark bronze complexion stood out in contrast to the broad white stripes of her tank top which, once again, Cross almost instinctively took notice of her impressive endowment. More than that though, Cross quickly took note of her beautifully toned legs finished off with a pair of sandal clogs; while admittedly the young man was far more preferential to a woman's 'upper body' than he was of her lower half, he couldn't help but let himself be mesmerized by the young woman's gorgeous hourglass figure whom one might have honestly thought was crafted by a master sculptor. Quickly pulling himself back to reality, Cross exchanged a quick glance with the mother's violet eyes before uncharacteristically turning his gaze away in embarrassment. "Umm, well, I'm glad I was able to help so...," Cross paused awkwardly. This was unusual for him, it's wasn't like he was inexperienced when it came to dealing with women, he was aware he had done his fair share of courting in the past couple of years, so why was he feeling this awkward in front a girl who was three or four years younger than him.

Be it woman's intuition or the man's poor ability at masking his embarrassment, she noticed his moment of weakness and let out a soft giggle before taking two steps towards Cross and extending her hand, "Thanks for finding my little Philip. He can be a handful sometimes but he's my whole world, ya know?" Cross smiled and shook the young lady's hand, "no problem at all, I'm glad I could help. By the way, my name's Cross, please to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, Cross. My name's Kyanna, Kyanna Delrio."

At that moment, before either of them could exchange another word, "Hey babe, so you found the little brat, huh?" Walking up from the opposite direction were three young men around Cross' age; the first was a scrawny runt of man who, for a second, Cross was sure to fly away with a strong gust of wind. The second man, standing to the left of the skinny guy was literally the complete opposite of the first, boasting the physic of an experienced bodybuilder, he certainly gave the impression he could hold his own when came to challenges of strength, though since it was he that had just called Philip a 'brat', Cross suddenly felt a twinge of animosity towards him. As for the third man, he was a rather stout man whom, at first glance, had more fat than muscle, but years of experience as well as numerous "less than normal" situations had taught Cross to know better than to let appearances fool him.

Kyanna turned at gave the second man an irritated scowl, "My son is NOT a brat! And don't call me 'babe', you and I are nowhere near that close; and personally, I don't intend to ever let it get to that point!" Needless to say, the second man didn't appreciate being disrespected in front of friends, especially be a woman, "Heh, god babe, you're lucky you're hot cause if you weren't..." "You'd what?" asked Kyanna, clearly not intimidated by the fool's chauvinistic behavior. Cross had warning bells going off in his head, it was a sense he had honed from years of combat training; despite his age, Cross had experienced more in the last nine years of his life than most veteran soldiers would experience in a lifetime combined. "You know what girl? Your body maybe banging but your mouth needs a little work, allow me to start you off," growled the second man as he stepped up to Kyanna with his fist raised.

As Kyanna instinctively shielded her face, Cross rushed pass her with what was clearly an inhuman rate of speed. As Cross stepped in front of Kyanna to protect her, his years of combat experience instinctively kicked in; with a swipe of his hand the bodybuilder's incoming fist was slapped to the side leaving him wide open to a vicious roundhouse kick to the side of his face. As he was kicked to the side, it was obvious it was taking everything he had just to stay conscience, let alone standing, "you... you... who the hell are you?" "Depends on who you ask," Cross sarcastically replied, "Some call me an Anomaly. Others call me a Champion. Soulless, monster, abomination, it doesn't matter. Either way, I don't like cockroaches who think they've the right to hit a woman, especially a mother." Another skill Cross had developed over the years were the necessary skills to psychologically intimidate his opponents, even by just looking at them in a certain way enabled him to resolved conflicts without the need for physical violence. Of course, there were only two types of people these techniques has less effect on: the foolish and the arrogant. Unfortunately, the three standing in front of him now where prime examples of both; seeing their friend get knocked to the side as easily as he was, the other two rushed at Cross howling like animals. Cross knew better than to panic, panicking made room for errors and mistakes, and for people like Cross, either of the two were life threatening.

As the two howling loons rushed at Cross with utter recklessness, Cross easily bested the both of them with an equal display of skill and strength. First, he knocked out the scrawny guy by clothes lining him at the neck; and for the stout man, Cross tripped him and caused him to land right on top of the scrawny guy then proceeded to knock the stout man out with a powerful axe kick to the back of his head. Kyanna was stunned, as she held Philip tightly in her embrace, she was mesmerized by this stranger's capability,in less than two minutes he had protected her and her son by suppressing two people and nearly knocking out the third. "Y-you! You think you're tough shit huh?" cried the second as he pulled out pistol from his side pocket and trained it on Cross. Kyanna screamed and turned, using her body as a shield to protect her little boy, while Cross instinctively rushed at the fool with nigh-inhuman speed. In a split second, Cross had wrapped his arms around the body builder's and with two pulls and a twist, disarmed him; Cross then struck him in the throat with his fist which brought the muscle bound moron to his knees. Kyanna slowly turned and faced the direction of the two men, all the while maintaining her coverage of her son.

Having been brought to his knees the fool looked up at Cross with an expression Cross had come to indulge himself in: fear. "What are you man?" he whimpered, but for those precious seconds that felt like an eternity Cross said nothing, instead Cross placed his hand atop the man's head and a surge of light pierced through the kneeling man's eyes. Kyanna looked on, burning the image of this into her eyes. And as the light faded from the man's head, so did his life; and what stood standing over his now lifeless body was a young man of about 24 years old with a pair of majestic black wings protruding from his back. "Depends on who you ask," Cross stated to the life husk, "some call me an Anomaly. Others call me a Champion. But know that I think about it, an Angel of Darkness is accurate as it gets."

 **To be continued.**


	2. Chapter 2 This and Those around Us

**Okay, so I know that chapter 1 was a little... drawn out. But I promise things will start picking up in this chapter. New (familiar) faces, typical interactions, and such. But if the weird is what's got you hooked then you'll get your fill in chapter 3, sorry.**

Ch.2: This and Those around Us

"Wait, wait, WAIT!" Kyanna yelled as she struggled to keep up with Cross' pace, trying her best to cradle her 1 year old son in her arms, "I still don't understand. What are you? What did you do to those guys back there? Were those real wings? Where did you come from?"

Cross furled his brow as the questions pelted the backside of his head, "You know, most people tend to run away screaming like the End War is upon them when they see something like us, especially when that something does something like that!" Cross stated turning towards Kyanna and Philip and gestured his arms in the direction of the deadbeat and his comatose acquaintances they had left behind about 2 minutes ago. "Well, yeah, I guess. But if you wanted to kill us you'd have done that to eliminate witnesses or something, right?" Kyanna stated nonchalantly with a hint of genuine humor. At this, Cross turned around, stepped up to the young mother who instinctively drew her son even closer to herself, lowered his head till he was face to face with hers and, almost menacingly, stated, "Don't... get... snarky. It's not cute. It's not attractive." Cross slowly pulled away from Kyanna's face till he was standing straight then continued, "You're right, if I wanted to kill you I could and I would. But I'm not going to, otherwise I'd be forced to deal with your son and then his father and that's just too much of pain in my ass right now." Cross then turned and started to walk away.

"Yeah about that... Philip doesn't have a father. I'm not married," Kyanna sheepishly stated, a slight awkward smile accompanying her statement. Cross stopped suddenly, a hint of interest shifting his facial expression from frustration to shock, 'how does a woman who looks like _that_ not have husband, or at least a boyfriend' Cross thought to himself. Suddenly, Cross came to a, personally, favorable realization: She's available! "Oh... really," Crossed stated in a delighted, though slightly creepy, tone as he turned his head to glimpse Kyanna, apparently ignoring the obvious look of fear and disgust that appeared across her face. "Um... yeah, but... I do have... a, um... boyfriend! Yeah, that's right! A boyfriend, a strong, tough, boyfriend," Kyanna lied, though being a woman who values honesty as much as she does only caused her to be somewhat sick to her stomach, course lying to an apparent angel didn't help, but considering that he called himself an 'Angel of Darkness' was an enabling factor.

Cross walked up to her again, but unlike the first time, his aura no where near as menacing, though this didn't keep Kyanna from being anymore disturbed. As Cross stood before the two, he leaned down to Kyanna 's ear and whispered, "You... are lying." As Cross leaned back he took a moment to indulge himself in the shocked looked on Kyanna's face; "Please, I..." Cross paused for a split second, recalling memories of past actions and statements he regretted because he said and did too much... more than what was ultimately needed, Cross sighed and smiled as his expression softened, "You think I can't see through lies? Unlike standard angels, I have a stronger... sensitivity towards Darkness. Things like lies, murder, deceit, theft, sin, even the very darkness within a living, or nonliving, thing for that matter." If she hadn't seen what she saw earlier she'd never had believed that last part. "Uh... yeah, sorry about that. I don't usually do the whole lying thing but considering what happened back there, I sorta... well you know," Kyanna sheepishly confessed. "No harm, no foul, no worries," Cross retorted with a slight chuckle, "Listen, I'm sorry. I know its no excuse but... I've kinda had a bit a... rough last couple of days. So, I'm sorry too."

"No harm, no foul, no worries," Kyanna retorted playfully with a short laugh, "I guess it wasn't too smart trying to lie to an angel, huh?" "Yeah, well, I shouldn't have been... quick to wrath, as God puts it," Cross replied paraphrasing a lecture he had been given by the big cheese himself earlier in his life. "Hey, so I was gonna spend my day off with Philip here in the park but how about the three of us go somewhere and... maybe hang out? I mean, its not everyday a girl gets to hang out with an actual angel, right?" Kyanna asked hoping for a positive reply. "Well, sure, I wouldn't mind. To be honest I recently just landed here and I don't really know my way around so having a guide would certainly be helpful. Besides, I have to admit you do pique my interest," Cross said relaxing his posture. "I do! Really?" Kyanna squealed lightly with excitement, though her feelings were quickly cracked as Cross turned on the ball of heel and retorted, "Yeah, after all, not a lot of girls out there who witness a guy knockout two deadbeats and kill one moron and then proceed to ask for a date." The painful truth behind Cross' last statement hit Kyanna like a brick to the head; true the man in front of her _did_ find her son for her before some weirdo did, and it was true that the same guy _did_ save both her and her son from three _actual_ weirdos, and of course it was true that he was an angel, albeit an Angel of Darkness, but still, you had to admit... the fact that when a girl sees a guy kill someone, supernaturally or otherwise, last thing you do is ask him out on a date, especially with your one year old in tow... wait, did she just think **_DATE_**!

Getting from the Park to the Mall in Glenberry isn't exactly something you can do by rounding the corner and walking a block or two, it takes time; so when Cross grabbed Kyanna by the arm and the entrance of the Mall appeared right in front of her it was safe to say she had some difficulty grasping the situation, "Wh-Wha... what just happened?" Cross turned his head and faced Kyanna, finding the look of her confused expression laughable, whereas little Philip leaned forward from his mother's arms towards the direction of Cross' back with outstretched arms, "bir-ty, bir-ty!" the toddler cooed excitedly.

"Birdie, huh? I guess Philip's spiritual awareness is fairly strong if he can see my wings," Cross commented as he placed his hand gently on Philips shoulder and steadied him in his mother's embrace. "Your wings?" Kyanna turned and looked at Cross, her face covered with an equal amount of astonishment and confusion, "You mean the ones you...," Kyanna suddenly cut herself off, checking her surroundings hastily, then leaned forward and continued in a whisper, "you mean the one's you showed earlier? But I didn't see them just now."

"Well, yeah, the senses of almost every mortal on the mortal plane aren't sharp enough to perceive the spiritual," Cross explained in slightly quieted tone, "First off, using the mortals of Earth as an example, as people age and interact with the secular world around them, they inadvertently begin to expose themselves to the secular concepts of the world, which unfortunately is heavily laced with sin," Cross continued as he lead the other two through the automatic doors of the Mall entrance, "Because of this, people begin to lose their spiritual purity and, therefore, their spiritual awareness begins to dull. This is particularly why, in some cultures, spiritual belief systems and their members/followers/believers, like monks and/or nuns will isolate themselves from the outside world in monasteries, convents, and such."

Kyanna tried desperately to understand and process everything Cross was explaining to her, but admittedly she wasn't exactly a saint herself; while she wasn't exactly involved in spirituality like her yoga instructor: Beli, she never believed herself to willingly commit sinful acts, at least not that many, "I think I get it, but then again maybe not." As he slowed his pace to match the mother and child next to him, Cross attempted to simplify his explanation, a skill he wasn't too well versed in, unfortunately, "Well, let me explain in another way that you may understand," Cross suddenly came to a stop, turned to Kyanna and pointed at Philip, "Philip, here, is barely a year old right? That being the case, since he hasn't had much interaction with the secular world around him, he's still very innocent... very pure," as Cross said this Philip clapped his hands together giddily and laughed, no doubt a prime example of Cross' explanation, "which is why, it would seem, he can visually see my wings even though I've not manifested them physically." Cross finished his explanation in an even more hushed tone; though considering they were smack dab in the middle of a shopping mall, or 'a temple for those whom wished to be worshiped like the peacock' as an Archangel once described it to Cross, it wasn't exactly the best place to have a conversation regarding the spiritual laws of the mortal plane of creation.

"Well of course he is," Kyanna playfully said to her son as she nuzzled her nose with his, causing the little one to laugh excitedly as his mother repeatedly showered him with maternal affection, "he's my purest, most special little man in the whole wide world. Yes, he is. Yes, he is." Cross smiled as he watched, quietly, as Kyanna continued to shower Philip with her loving and unconditional affection. All the while recalling visions of his earlier nightmares and painful memories; Kyanna, a joyful expression on her face glanced from Philip to Cross, then back, but then quickly turned and faced Cross, her expression changing from joy to concern, "Cross, what's wrong? You're crying!"

Cross' eyes widened, he raised his right hand to the right side of his face just below his eye and felt a watery tear slide from his face to the tip of his middle finger; he closed his eyes and hastily began to wipe the tears from his face, a sniff and a grunt as he cleared his throat could be heard behind his hands as they brushed across his face, "No, it's... it's nothing, sorry." Cross brought his arms down to his side and smiled gently, the whites of his eyes shaded slightly red in contrast to his brown irises; "I just... I just wondered if that was how my own mother was with me when I was that small," Cross confessed, a twinge of pain hinting slightly in his voice.

Perhaps it was because she was a mother, despite her age, Kyanna caught Cross' moment of weakness. Her own maternal instincts suddenly kicking in, she reached out and caressed the left side of Cross' face, spurring the young man to display a seemingly typical set of reactions; first his eyes widened, the beautiful young mother's actions were not something he had ever experienced for himself, whether by his own choice or that of others; his expression then softened considerably, his eyes closing as he raised his left hand and placed his palm on the back of Kyanna's hand while he tilted his head to the side, the feeling of having his head cradled by a such a soft, yet somewhat rough due perhaps to some form of physical activity, hand sent a feeling of different kind of peace, comfort, and reassurance that Cross could not recall ever feeling before... it felt nice.

"Kyanna?" Kyanna and Cross both jerked in startled surprise as another voice brought the two of them back to reality. As Kyanna quickly pulled her hand away from Cross' face and turned around, Cross looked passed Kyanna, the warm sensation of her hand still tingling on his cheek, and saw another young woman standing no more than ten feet away from them.

No doubt she was about the same age as Kyanna, the young woman was very slender, though her physique was nowhere near as toned as Kyanna's, with beautifully long blonde hair tied up in pigtails with red ribbons; she had sapphire blue eyes that stood out especially in comparison to her Caucasian white skin. Though what really stood out, for Cross in particular, was her school girl attire: a red plaid skirt, a white button up top with matching red plaid sleeve ends, thigh-high white stockings, and black shoes. Cross couldn't help but notice that only the top two of her top's four buttons were actually buttoned, revealing both her navel and about an inch of skin above it. While Cross wasn't particularly drawn to this type of on-the-nose attire, he certainly wasn't going to complain, but perhaps because of his time spent with her, Cross found himself more preferential of Kyanna still.

"Oh, hey Tiffany!" Kyanna stated in a slightly excited tone, the shock of Tiffany's sudden interruption beginning to pass, "What brings you here? Didn't you have a practice at noon?" "Yeah, well my earlier class got canceled and since the coach had a sudden staff meeting, we didn't have to go to practice," Tiffany responded.

"I take it your not too happy about either of those, are you?" Cross asked as he stepped forward, walking a step past Kyanna, whom looked at him with both surprise and bit of suspicion. "Huh, what do you mean?" Tiffany asked in confusion, obviously she would be since this stranger just walked up and blurted something clearly out of the blue. "I can tell, you're worried that your class got canceled. The same for your practice session, right?" Cross continued, trying to ignore the piercing gaze Kyanna was boring into the back of his head. "Well, yeah. I guess you're right, midterms are in a few weeks and this is the fifth time our teacher, Ms. Yumi, canceled class this semester. Then there's the fact that we have that big game coming up and some of the other cheerleaders have been blowing off practice lately," Tiffany explained, sighing dejectedly as she gave off an aura of worry and frustration.

Cross turned his head to Kyanna, he pointed two fingers to his eyes and gestured for her to watch Tiffany; he then walked up to her and placed his right hand on Tiffany's shoulder, "You must have faith. Hard work, perseverance, and commitment does not go unnoticed. If your fellow cheerleaders see you so dejected about their behavior, they will perceive it as you placing blame on them which will only further their distance. But if you truly believe in their commitment and prove it by showing it, then they will notice this, and if they truly are committed then they will show it in response." Tiffany's eyes widened in realization, she hadn't thought of it that way; while its true some members of her squad had been skipping practice, she, as their captain, knew exactly how much effort they **_all_** had put in the past few months and, rather than focus on that, she was busy getting depressed just because 2 or 3 girls had skipped 2 or 3 times. "As for your class getting canceled, if you're so concerned about your upcoming exam, then rather than focusing on being worried and concerned, look into what material will be covered in the exam and study for it yourself. God created people with the ability to reach immeasurable heights, but sometimes the only way they can do that is to take initiative and venture out by themselves. Yes, you'll make mistakes along the way, but its when you don't learn from those mistakes and begin to stagnate that you should start to be concerned. Studying material you've not learned is hard, but man was able to reach the stars without wings and fend off Death himself with a pill, these accomplishments were not easily achieved, but its because they weren't easy that made them all the more worth it," Cross continued, during which Kyanna noticed something unusual.

All the while Cross' hand was on Tiffany shoulder, Kyanna was sure she could see a black mist coming off Tiffany and flowing into Cross' hand.

"Oh wow... I never thought of that," Tiffany confessed, a smile suddenly brimming across her face, "You're right! Now that I think about it, I can just check the class syllabus to see what chapters I need to go over and practice the review problem!" Cross removed his hand from Tiffany shoulder and dropped it down to his side, "See? Once you stopped wallowing in darkness and you looked at things from a positive perspective, you found the answers all on your own." "Yeah, you're right! Thanks!" Tiffany stated, her usual upbeat and positive personality back to what it once was... though perhaps more so than usual. She suddenly reached out and embraced Cross in a warm, and noticeably soft, hug. Needless to say, Cross wasn't exactly prepared for this, what truly concerned him though was the sudden sensation of murder coming from behind him, as he slowly turned his head he caught a glimpse of Kyanna out of the corner of his eye, and faint aura of darkness permeating from her person.

Ten minutes later, one angel, two women and a one year old were found sitting in a yogurt shop located just outside the main area of the food court. The girls chose this place because it appealed to everyone's tastes: for Kyanna, the food was healthy and had combinations of real fruits and even real veggies, for Tiffany, the yogurts and parfaits were just the thing to satisfy her sweet tooth, and since the yogurts were thoroughly blended and low in sugar, Kyanna felt it was okay for Philip to have some too. As for the Angel of Darkness, Kyanna was still permeating a faint aura of darkness, so he knew better than to press his luck and be picky, even when Kyanna ordered him a jumbo sized yogurt parfait mixed with sour plums, **_a lot_** of sour plums. "So Cross, hows it taste? Hmm?" Kyanna asked, her sarcasm as evident as the sourness of his parfait. "Not bad. Not bad at all. Though they've yet to make a sour that can match up to the Cross," he responded positively, a slightly sadistic laugh in reaction to Kyanna's forced expression of happiness.

"Um, listen... sorry about what happened back there," Tiffany told Cross with a heavy tone of embarrassment, "Honestly, I don't know what came over me. I guess I was more bummed out about everything than I thought. And once you helped me look past all that, I guess I just kinda... well, you know." "No worries, a little gratitude for one's efforts is not a bad thing to receive every once in a while. Especially first hand, you know?" Cross jibbed to Tiffany easing her embarrassment a tad. "Yeeaaahh," Kyanna enunciated sarcastically, "I bet it makes it pretty easy when the one thanking you is a cute girl."

"This is true," Cross muttered, chewing a mouthful of yogurt and sour plums, nonchalantly.

Tiffany glanced back and forth at the two, her blank expression hinting an air of confusion. As she came to a sudden realization, her expression flashed one of both surprise and, mostly, puckish glee. She turned to Kyanna and said teasingly, "Oh, I get it." Kyanna returned her friend's gaze with one of half surprise. "Sooo, when were you gonna tell me you found a boyfriend?" Tiffany continued teasing Kyanna, the look of embarrassment and girlish surprise serving only to further fuel her puckish teasing, "Well, guess it explains why you seemed a little upset when I gave him that hug." "Whoa, whoa, no, no, no, no, no, no, no," Kyanna said vehemently, "He... he is... he's not my boyfriend." "Obviously, not," Cross stated bluntly, apparently unaware of Tiffany's shocked expression and Kyanna's equally shocked, but seemingly more irritated, expression, "After all, what are the chances that would happen considering we only just met, for the first time I might add, about an hour ago?"

It was not conceded, nor it was not was it exaggerated, nor even senseless, in all truth Cross' logic was flawless and the girls knew it. "Excuse me for a second, I'm gonna use the restroom," Cross stated as he got up and walked off towards the back of the shop. "Well, he seems... interesting," Tiffany said in a matter-of-factually monotone voice. Kyanna, recalling everything that happened in the last hour and a half, leaned forward, pressed her forehead to the table, and, with a slight laugh, responded, "Oh, you have know idea. Believe me." Tiffany cocked her head slightly to the side in confusion.

"Well, well, look who it is," said a voice with slightly high pitch and what seemed to be a heavy tone of arrogance.

Tiffany turned her head and saw two of her closest friends; the first, a short girl with a slim physique, blue eyes that matched her equally blue shoulder length hair, a pair of large framed glasses that covered her eyelashes; she wore an oversize grey sweater with the left shoulder slanted to show her bra strap with white shorts patterned in black, and at the bottom of her slim legs were a pair of black shoes with white patterns and grey shoelaces. The second girl, the one who spoke earlier, was a slightly taller girl with an equally slim physique to the first, though it bears mentioning that her chest was noticeably flatter, though like the first girl her vibrant reds eyes matched the color of her hair that extended down to the mid of her back which was outfitted with a black rose/ribbon and a small white veil at the top. Her outfit was a red Lolita dress with a red plaid with white squares shirt, along with a red skirt with matching horizontal ruffle across the middle. She her feet were a pair of white high heels accessorized with black bows attached to them and a red ribbon tied around her left ankle.

"Hey Tiffany, I thought you said you had practice today. What happened?" Said the girl with blue hair. "Oh yeah, technically I did, but it got canceled so I figured I meet up with Audrey here and we'd do some shopping," Tiffany responded as she gestured to the girl with red hair. "Canceled? Yeah right, admit it, you just wanted to play hooky for once in your life," replied Audrey in a stuck up manner. "Come Audrey, don't say it like that, you know Tiffany's not like that at all," retorted the girl with blue hair. "Oh my God, Nikki, chill out would you! You need to seriously learn to laugh at a joke once in a while. I mean, every one knows chicks with no sense of humor have like zero chance of getting laid," ridiculed Audrey towards Nikki whose expression went from bothered to extremely annoyed.

Before Nikki could respond in her own defense, however, "You know, girls with mega bitchy personalities also have zero chance of getting laid," Kyanna directed to Audrey as she lifted her head off the table and faced Audrey, her expression as annoyed as Nikki's. Since she wasn't paying attention, Audrey hadn't noticed Kyanna, one of the _many_ people she openly clashed with, sitting with Tiffany with her one year old, Philip, sitting in between the two. As she groaned out loud, Audrey's expression became one of disgust, "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be out, I don't know, ruining the life of some other baby daddy or something?" What was that you little..." Kyanna barked at the insult, though was cut off before she could finish as Tiffany quickly stood up and attempted to defuse the situation.

"Jaysus, I get this place has a image to promote, but did they have to make the men's room cream colored too? For a moment I thought I walked into the Lady's room by mistake..." said Cross as he walked towards his table, his focus still on the room he just left and therefore not on what was right in front of him. As Cross suddenly felt as though he had walked into something he turned his head and focused his attention on those in front of him. "Hey watch where your walking, dumb ass!" Cross heard the voice but none of the three girls in front of him appeared to be ones who said it, "Hey Einstein, I'm talking to you!" Again, Cross heard the voice, but it still wasn't any of the three in front of him, Cross began looking left and right for the source of the insulting voice but found nothing, "I'm right in front you, you moron! What are you fucking blind?" Cross faced forward then tilted his head down until he came face to face with Audrey; as he was about 6'0 and she was about 5'2, she approximately a head and a half shorter than he was; as the two stared at each other for about 10 seconds Audrey expression became even more annoyed, "What the hell are you staring at?"

Cross quickly turned his head upward and asked loudly, "Anyone here missing a five year old? I repeat, anyone here missing a five year old?" As soon as they heard this, Tiffany, Nikki, and Kyanna burst out laughing hysterically, as well as some of the other patrons whom were becoming annoyed by Audrey's behavior. As for Audrey, her expression was one mixed with astonishment, appalled, rage and embarrassment, all in large quantities; so when Cross chucked mockingly at her, she retaliated with by swift, and unexpectedly strong, punch to his lower jaw.

The laughter suddenly died when this happened, Audrey then turned around, looked at her hand and winced in what appeared to be excruciating pain; judging by her behavior, one might have thought she had just punched a wall, of course her tough-girl exterior would never have allowed her to display such weakness to such an extent. Cross on the other hand, didn't move an inch; more precisely, the only movement he displayed from Audrey's assault was merely the turning of his head, no different than if he had turned his to speak to someone. He then turned his head to face forward again in the exact same indifferent manner.

"Cross are you okay?" Kyanna asked slightly concerned. "Hmm? Oh yeah, I'm fine," Cross responded nonchalantly, he then with a quick glance towards the sky, "I've been punched out by Michael before and I can tell you this, only the really tough SOB's can stay standing after one of those." "Wait... Michael? As in..." Kyanna asked in confirmation of who he was referring to. Crossed smirked, then nodded softly. "Wow," Kyanna responded with astonishment.

"Yeah, but if you think that's scary you should see the ones that can beat him, now those are some really tough SOB's," Cross retorted with a slightly sadistic chuckle, "so anyway, how about you guys introduce me to your friends here."

To be continued.


	3. Chapter 3 What is seen

**Okay, for all you guys who've waited patiently for the 'way out of left field' part of my story, strap on your bibs, grab the forks and knives, and get ready to go poke that pig. As stated in the author notes of chapter 1, I'm gonna involve a few Characters that are not even remotely related to the game (mostly because they're all males).**

 **Just a forewarning, while the story line involving the OC and the Huniepop girls will mostly retain the overall 'dating' concept, chapters and scenarios involving these none Huniepop characters will essentially be... none Huniepop scenarios. I promise I'll try to keep the two 'worlds' separated as much as possible (not breaking the proverbial 4th wall, I believe is the right phrase); but just a fair warning that when the story nears its ending (as all good things come to eventually) the two worlds will eventually merge. Furthermore, when you consider the fact that the OC is not exactly normal himself, you'll have to accept that there will be sometimes when the story veers off from realistic to supernatural (such as what happened near the end of chapter 1).**

 ***However, after this chapter (since I'll be introducing essentially all, if not all but 1 or 2 none Huniepop characters in this chapter) if you readers would like to see the story begin to move towards a story where both the OC and the Huniepop girls _and_ the none Huniepop characters merge sooner rather than later, let me know in the reviews and I'll see what pops out when I poke that pig.**

 **One last head's up, this chapter contains heavy language. Enjoy!**

Chapter 3: What is seen...

"Okay, so just so we're clear, everything from the socket padding and bones that were cut to the nerves, veins, tendons, and, of course, skin... have been thoroughly regenerated and reattached, compliments of Raphael of course. Now all that's left to do is reconnect the ball of your upper arm to the left shoulder socket or, simply put, pop your shoulder back in," explained a young man.

This seemingly young man stood no taller than approximately 5'7 from toe to head; possessing a slightly muscular build, his physique would normally be considered acceptable for one whose responsibilities were primarily those of a messenger, preacher, and child delivery; however, it is necessary to state that his appearance also masked that of a man whom possessed impressive combat prowess. Further evident of this was the man's attire, a thick chainmail armor made of what would appear to be steel, charred to a light grey color, which covered the whole of his body from slightly below his neck down to just above his ankles. His loins were guarded by skirt of long, but thin, plated metal which covered from right below his naval down to the middle of his calves. His feet were fitted with metal boots, like those worm by the knights of old, with the only difference being half inches of leather attached to the bottom for slip resistance. His arms and hands were left bare with exception for a pair of metal vambraces his measuring from his wrists to three quarters of his lower arm, and on his right shoulder, a guard with the Latin words: Deus est enim fortitudo mea, or 'God is my strength'; and strapped to the right side of his waist was an obsideon colored war mace and on the left, a white horn with a golden mouth piece and golden trim. Unlike the rest of his body, his head was left bare and seemingly unguarded by any headgear or helmet, his visibly short, slightly curly, black hair evident of this.

His weapon, accessory, and engraved shoulder guard aside, the overall design and color of his armor was similar to those equal to him in rank, as well as his two older brothers, both of whom were about ten feet away from him and another young man sitting, cross legged, right besides him.

His appearance, while that of a typical human male, masked the true identity of this man and his two older brothers. This man was actually the ethereal entity known as Gabriel, 'Child of'' and 'Servant of God', or by his rank and name: Archangel Gabriel.

As for the young man sitting right next to the Archangel, his appearance was strangely, even to the hosts of heaven, identical to that of Cross Infinitus, the only noticeable difference being that this young man's physique was slightly slimmer and about two inches shorter than the Angel of Darkness. His attire was also completely different to that of his Archangel acquaintances in that it appeared to be, literally from every angle, normal. His clothes were all black, a pocket-tee covered his upper body as well as his the bulk of his upper arms, loose fit jeans covered his waist down to his ankles with a typical braided style belt looped around his waist, and his feet were covered with black colored, slip-resistant, sneakers. On his left arm he wore a digital wristwatch while his right arm was a silver fishhook style bracelet; and on his right ring finger a nugget style gold ring. Placed next to him, on the ground, was a black leather jacket with three or four medium sized pockets, a few small sized pockets were visibly woven into the inside of the jacket; topped off with a foe-fur trimmed hood.

Fashionable and functionable for whenever you find yourself surrounded and outnumbered by men, creatures, and all manner of abominations seeking to mount your head on a pike.

His weapon, in contrast to his own simplistic appearance, was an engineering masterpiece in and of itself. Picture, if you will, a cross between a massive broad sword roughly twice the width of the young man himself, fitted around the edges with a durably thick chain connected with fin-like blades like those of a chainsaw, a large, thick, gear at the tip end of the massive chain-blade designed for uninterrupted rotations. At the other end, however, just before the grip of the handle, the blade remained strangely flat, no bulky case for what should have been a housing for some type of motor that propelled the chain. As stated, this weapon was, quite literally, an engineering masterpiece.

"You ready for this, Chris?" Gabriel asked in confirmation, the palm of both his hands placed firmly on Chris' left arm shoulder.

Chris placed a thick piece of leather in his mouth, bit down, gave the Archangel a thumbs up with his right thumb and muttered, "Yuf, quihc lihc a banh-aihd (Yup, quick like a band-aid). Ohn threeh (On three). One... YEEEEEOOOOOCH!" Chris let out a pained, muffled cry as the Archangel instantly forced his bone back into its socket. Taking in long breaths, he spat out the leather hide piece, a full set of dental impressions left in it, and turned and glared at the Archangel.

"What?" asked Gabriel sheepishly, a slightly sarcastic laugh present in his question.

"I said on THREE! Dingus!" growled Chris aggravatedly, "No wonder you guys can't win this war!"

The Archangel playfully brushed the insult aside with a shrug of his shoulders then turned and got to his feet, walking away from his less-than-would-be patient as said patient began slowly rotating his arm, and up toward his two older brothers, Archangels Raphael and Michael, respectively.

Both brothers were clad in similar attire to that of Gabriel, the only real difference being the engravings on the plates of their shoulder guards. Raphael's was inscribed with the Latin words: Deum natum est et sanatum or 'God has healed'; and Michael's was "Et quis alius similis Deo or 'He who is like God'.

As Gabriel approached his two elder siblings, his expression changed to one of concern and slightly fearful, he nealt down next to his brother Raphael and quietly asked, "How is he, brother? Will he awaken soon?"

His short straight hair was a deep brown color brushed to the side, a stereotypical style for one primarily working in the medical field. Clean cut, no facial hair, and trimmed fingernails; Archangel Raphael was the chief healer, and highest authority regarding all things related to healing, of all the heavenly hosts with the only obvious exception being his father. That being the case, when the healer let out an exhausted sigh as he was leaning over his unconscious older brother, he inadvertently instilled his younger brother with even more concern.

Turning his head towards Gabriel, the older Archangel admitted, "Well, he's not in any real danger. However, having a weapon run through his torso like that left him in an even weaker state than I had initially realized." Raphael leaned over his brother again and placed his hands over the middle of Michael's chest and stomach, respectively. Moments later, sparks of ethereal light quickly came together beneath his hands till a ray of ethereal energy shown from his palms onto Michael's entire upper body, "Obviously the wound is deep since the blade ran through him from front to back. Had I gotten to him any sooner... well, I'd have feared even the worse for the mighty Archangel Michael."

The sounds of the ethereal rays resonated in the air as the four companions remained silent amongst themselves. Chris couldn't bear to look into the eyes of the Archangels for fear his guilt over his own incapability would be noticed; as his thoughts flashed back to less than a three hours ago, he recalled, in painfully vivid detail, what had happened prior to bringing Michael to his younger brothers. He raised his gaze to the clear blue sky and thought, "Cross, I hope where ever you landed, you're still okay."

"Chris," Raphael called, breaking the silence without averting his gaze from his brother beneath his healing hands. Chris turned his head towards the three Archangels in response, "What do your eyes see? Can you see where the Anomaly landed? Is he close by? Is he on this planet? Is he even in this dimension?"

Chris paused for a second then replied, "Sorry, Raphael. I sense his presence, but judging from how faint it is, he's nowhere nearby." Raphael sighed, "Well, lets just hope wherever your incantation sent him, he landed without continuing his rampage." Cross narrowed his eyes at the Archangel's comment, he knew the Archangel was, by nature, kind to most things and therefore meant no ill will, but it still caused a twinge of irritation in his heart when he thought back to the cause of his friend's said rampage. While he believed Cross' rage and subsequential reaction was justified, he figured it best to keep that part to himself for the time being.

Once again returning his gaze to the sky, Chris quietly prayed for his friend's well being... knowing full well that God was unable to answer that particular prayer.

Back at the Glenberry Mall, the Angel of Darkness took his seat at the corner of the table adjacent to Kyanna while Nikki sat in the middle of him and Audrey, the look of extreme irritation still present on her face. "Um, Audrey, don't you think its about time you let go about what Cross said about you?" Tiffany sheepishly pleaded with her best friend, "I mean, its not like he meant anything when he said it."

Audrey glanced at Tiffany and scoffed under her breath in objection as she blew off her friend's attempts to mend the proverbial broken bridge. Needless to say though, Audrey was more stubborn than a bull, if she didn't like someone, she felt no obligation to hide it.

"Oh come on Audrey, you gotta admit, it was kinda funny," stated Nikki with a soft laugh as she recalled, repetitively, the scene of Cross referring to Audrey as a five year old.

Audrey eye brows twitched as she turned and glared at Nikki with both offended shock and malice in her eyes, "Funny? You think that was funny? Oh... my... god! This is so like you; this freak craps a bad joke and you burst out laughing, I give you professional comedy gold and it flies right over your head."

"Don't get mad at her," Cross interjected as he finished the last of the parfait in front of him, "I tailor my message to the moment. And in that moment... you set yourself up perfectly, I just couldn't resist." Cross finished his statement with a laugh, much to Audrey's obvious ire.

She turned her attention to Tiffany and asked, "What are you even doing with this moron? Oh my god, don't tell me you're on some weird threesome date or something?"

Tiffany's expression sent the exact same thing as her words, 'I'm not even gonna dignify that twisted response with an answer'. "No, of course not. He's just someone I met when I ran into Kyanna earlier."

Audrey turned her gaze towards Kyanna, smiled sarcastically, and said, "Wait, let me guess, he's the father, right?" Kyanna glared at the red head with equal irritation, "Even if he was, that's none of your business!"

"Gotta admit, I wouldn't be opposed to the idea," Cross stated nonchalantly, scooping together the remains of the yogurt from the sides of his plastic cup, momentarily unaware of the gravity behind his comment. He spooned the last edible amount of yogurt before placing the cup and spoon on the table before looking up and, seeing the girls' shocked expression, stated to Kyanna, "I mean, think about it. I get married to you, and not only do I get one of the hottest girls on earth as my wife but I instantly become every man in town's most hated individual." The look of shock still very visible on her face, Kyanna blushed a slight crimson red as she lowered her head, silently pondering the thought of what it would be like to be married to an angel. "Now if I married her on the other hand," Cross continued, gesturing to Audrey with his hand, "I'd end up with fifteen to twenty five years in prison on a pedophilia charge."

Cross closed his joke with a laugh, jeering at Audrey as she turned red with anger; all the while Nikki was pinching her thighs, trying desperately not to laugh for fear of ending up the brunt of Audrey wrath. She had to admit, even though she knew, and accepted, that she was extremely introverted, she was beginning to like this guy.

"Well," Cross started as he stood up and prepared to leave, "Kyanna, what say you show the rest of the mall?" "Yeah, okay sure," Kyanna replied happily as she lifted Philip out of the high chair. Tiffany stood up as well and prepared to accompany the two of them, she knew Audrey well enough to know that her attitude wasn't gonna get better anytime soon, "Well, I'll catch up with you guys later, kay?"

Tiffany and Nikki exchanged friendly good byes while Audrey responded to hers with silent, yet hostile indifference. As the three walked out of the shop, Nikki stood up, looked at Audrey and said, "I'm gonna make a quick call, I'll be right back." "Yeah, fine, whatever," Audrey responded negatively, wishing she could smoke a cigarette but knew she couldn't as the last time she smoked in a non-smoking area, mall security hassled her for over an hour. As Nikki pulled out her phone and headed for the entrance of the shop, an employee, a large man with an extremely large muscular build, walked over to Audrey and in a deep gruff voice said, "Excuse me miss." Audrey turned and looked up at the muscular giant of an employee, resisting with every fiber of her being to verbally badmouth him, responded with a completely opposite manner, "What? What do you want?" "Well miss, the gentleman you were with, the one in the black jacket, he said that you'd be handling the bill," replied the man in a professional and courteous manner that did not suit either his build or his voice. "He what?!" asked Audrey appalled as the man handed her a slim, cream colored, checkbook.

Thirty seconds later as Nikki finished her phone call, she turned to head back into the store only to have Audrey run past her at a speed not really feasible for someone wearing heels, a look of absolute rage plastered across her face.

As Cross, Kyanna, and Tiffany rounded the corner, they entered a part of the mall that was not heavily populated for that time of day; Tiffany turned to Cross, smiled and said, "So Cross, I've known Audrey for a long time now. I know when she gets that way, she can hit pretty hard, but you just took it like it was nothing. That was awesome!" Cross smiled as he basked in the young blonde girl's adoration, while Kyanna, on the other hand, eyed him with irritation, "Well, I may not look it, but I'm pretty sturdy. I've spent most of my life training regularly everyday." This suddenly caught Kyanna attention, "Really? You do to? I'm the exact same way! I spend most of my free time at the gym." Kyanna stopped, posed and, with a look of accomplishment, proudly said, "I didn't get this body just standing around."

Tiffany smiled as she took Kyanna by her free arm and teased, "Yeah, yeah, miss 'I've been on TV before'. We get it, your absolutely, 100%, undeniably gorgeous." The two girls exchanged friendly laughs with each other; then Tiffany suddenly ran over and wrapped her arms around Cross' left arm and teased, "That being the case, I guess someone as beautiful and attractive as you won't mind if I keep Cross company while you're off being famous and gorgeous, right?" Kyanna smiled, though with a hint of irritation, walked over and took Cross' free arm into her own, "Oh, no you don't. I found him first, so he's coming with me."

Despite that Cross knew the girls were simply using him as prop for their own personal amusement, he couldn't help but notice the feeling of having these two girls press their chests against his arms. While it was obvious, based on their physiques, that there was a noticeable difference between Kyanna and Tiffany, Cross had to admit that Tiffany was keeping an impressive set of her own under that half-buttoned top. Still, by his own preference, Cross couldn't help but notice the weight of Kyanna's endowment.

"Hey, you asshole!" harped a high pitch voice full of rage and conceitedness. Cross, Kyanna, and Tiffany turned around and saw Audrey, he fists clenched, he face as red as her hair, and her expression as enraged as a woman her age could possibly get. Cross' eye immediately caught sight of the dark aura radiating from her person; in his eyes she was a billowing smokestack.

Audrey marched up to Cross, grabbed him by the collar of his jacket and growled him, "You must be fucking joking! Did you think I was just gonna let you get away like that?" Tiffany grabbed Audrey by the shoulder and pleaded, "Audrey, calm down. What are you talking about?"

From Cross to Tiffany and back to Cross, Audrey looked at the two as she vented her explanation, "This asshole told the guys at that store that I was footing the bill for all of you _**and**_ that I was planning to dine and dash." Tiffany and Kyanna turned their gazes on Cross as Audrey continued, "So, guess what they did? They sent this 250 pound tank of a enforcer to make me pay!"

Cross snorted, "Oh my god, are you serious? I thought they were just gonna give you a hard time, I didn't think they'd send a loan shark to collect." "You think that's funny? You think you can just screw we me and walk away like that?" Audrey barked angrily. Cross, conceding that he was in the wrong, pulled a ten dollar bill out of his pocket and handed it to Audrey, "Keep the change and we'll call it even for you slugging me in the face." Audrey released Cross' collar and took the bill from his hand and shoved it into her skirt pocket.

As she did, Nikki suddenly ran up behind her and said, "Audrey, you gotta run." Audrey turned to her asked, "Run? Why do I gotta run for?" As she said that, a man with short combed back hair, a red leather vest and dark brown pants walked up and shouted, "Audrey, what the hell? Why haven't you been returning my calls? I've been trying to get ahold of you for the last three days now and every time I try to, you haul ass and run. What? You avoiding me now?"

A equal look of disgust and irritation flashed across Audrey's face, she groaned aloud and responded in her own typical fashion, "Oh my god Charlie; what, are you stalking me now?" "No! I wanna know why you keep running away every time I try to talk to you! I wanna know why you won't return a single freaking phone call or text! What, are you screwing around or something?" Charlie yelled feverishly as Audrey as he walked closer and closer to her.

With every step this guy took, Cross' combat training started to kick in. He instinctively pulled Nikki behind him along with Tiffany behind her and Kyanna and Philip at the back. He scanned this guy from top to bottom looking for any signs of a concealed weapon, he couldn't risk another incident endangering the girls if something like that happened again.

Charlie stepped in front of Audrey who, perhaps because of her situation with Cross a few seconds ago, didn't seem very phased by his aggressive behavior. "Piss off loser! God, you buy a few nice things for a girl and suddenly you think she has to bend over and give to you or something!"

Cross could see the aura of darkness around Charlie and while to anyone else it would all seem like pitch black smoke, Cross could instinctively 'read' the darkness; in this case, the darkness around Charlie was shifting from anger to enraged. "'A few nice things'! You clean me out of $700 and you call that 'a few nice things'!" Charlie vented. Audrey, on the other hand, scowled at him and retorted, "Bitch, bitch, bitch. God, you bitch more than a girl. Why don't you just find some poor loser to bend you over; I promise you'll like it!" His aura shifted again. "Audrey, stop antagonizing him!" Cross warned her pointlessly. Tiffany was right, Audrey was a stubborn girl and equally foolish for not realizing the guy right in front of her was already teetering on the edge.

Audrey looked back at Cross and responded, "Why? What's this pussy whipped bitch gonna do? Huh? Cry and whine to his mommy?" And that was the final straw, Charlie walked up to Audrey, grabbed by the ribbon on her chest and growled, "Stupid bitch! Its about time someone taught you some manners!" Charlie reeled his fist back as Audrey, horror struck, quickly covered her face with hands and braced herself.

With even greater speed than last time Cross rushed towards Charlie; he grabbed him by the wrist of his reeled back arm and with his other hand grabbed the enraged man by the throat and lifted his a good six inches off the ground, causing him to release Audrey and have her drop to the floor. " _ **If you don't calm down**_ ," Cross' voice momentarily deepened and resonated with a terrifying, thunderous tone to such a degree that it shook those around him to their very souls, "then please, just man up and walk away. Okay?" His voice having returned to normal, Cross lowered Charlie who fell to his knees the moment his feet touched the floor.

Charlie, having endured the full brunt of Cross' anger, took a moment to process what happened. "Man, forget this shit. This bitch ain't worth it!" he yelled terrified as he turned and ran at full speed away from Cross. As his adrenaline level returned to normal Cross became aware of his surroundings, he turned and looked at the four girls behind him and saw all of them with terrified expressions. Cross turned, once more, with his back to them, took five steps and vanished, the fluttering sound of a large pair of wings trailing his disappearance.

To be continued.


	4. Chapter 4 Seraphim

**Hey guys, okay just a few heads up before reading, a lot more supernatural in this chapter than the previous ones, but a lot of romance. There is going to be a somewhat moderate amount of violence, nothing like Wes Craven, but just fair warning.**

 **Also, Finals are coming up for me so, while I'm sure some of you have been appreciative of my fast-paced updating, your gonna have to go a few days without an update. Least until I finish those, then I may just consider posting two chapters (or more) consecutively as an early Christmas gift to my loyal readers.**

 **So with that enjoy chapter 4 and keep poking that pig! LOL!**

Chapter 4: Seraphim

As the alarm on her phone chimed to the time of 5:30, Kyanna carefully lowered the barbell she was training with onto its supports and sat up, letting out a breath of relief as wiped the sweat from her brow with her towel. She then stood up and proceeded to the gym locker room; leaving her clothes in her assigned locker, she grabbed a clean towel and some hygiene products, walked into the nearest available stall and began to shower. The lukewarm water streaming from the shower head felt nice as it massaged her head and washed the sweat from her body; as she stood beneath the gentle stream, she meditated on the scene that she had been playing over and over in her head, a scene of a young man in black clothes, wearing a black blazer with gold trim and a silver emblem of a sword fused with an infinity symbol standing right-side up on its back, lifting another young man six inches off the ground by his neck. The thundering tone of the first young man, her friend, resonating with such force that, even after all this time, she felt a part of her being quiver with a fear she had never known: " _ **If you don't calm down**_ ….".

Kyanna slowly opened her eyes, the water streaming down her forehead, onto her eyelids, and then quickly dripping off her eye lashes; she continued to replay the same scene in her mind despite the terrifying feeling it sent through her, every now and then comparing it to the seeming greater acts of supernatural phenomenon she had witnessed him perform over the course of two hours just prior to that incident.

Kyanna sighed, it had been two days since Cross Infinitus has appeared and, just as supernaturally, disappeared from her life and she'd not seen hide or hair of the young man, nor even a feather for that matter. She finished cleaning herself as she attempted to put the young man out of her mind; wrapping the towel around body, she left the shower stall and walked over to her locker where she slipped the towel onto the wooden bench and began changing.

"Hello Kyanna," said a beautifully calm and easing voice, Kyanna turned to her side and saw Beli, her friend and favorite yoga instructor, "how have you been? I hope I'm not prying, but I couldn't help but notice earlier during the class you seemed somewhat distracted. Is everything okay?"

Kyanna smiled at Beli; whether it was because of her job as a yoga instructor or perhaps just because she was born with it, Beli had believed herself to be a very spiritual person who valued goodness, preparedness, kindness, and honesty, values that Kyanna herself valued greatly which was mainly why she bonded well with Beli. As Kyanna continued putting on her lingerie, she responded to Beli in as positive a tone as she could, "Oh, me? I'm fine. Just a few things on my mind is all. Nothing you need to worry yourself about."

As Kyanna mentioned this she leaned forward to put on her bra; Beli couldn't help but stare at the young woman's impressive endowment. "Perhaps I'm being presumptuous, but I'm guessing you've been having a hard time keeping the guys off you. Considering how beautifully you've shaped your body, I'm guessing the guys around you have been taking notice, huh?" Beli said jokingly, a friendly laugh trailing her comment. Kyanna, looked at her instructor then down to her breasts, then back at Beli and, with an awkward laugh, replied, "Well, that's not exactly it. I mean I've caught a few guys staring but nothing too serious. It's just…. It's just…" Kyanna trailed off at the end which caught the attention of her instructor.

Beli walked over to Kyanna, placed her hand gently on her students back and asked, "Just what? If you want, I'll listen." Kyanna smiled again, "No, that's okay. I guess I was just over thinking something is all. But don't worry; I'm not in trouble or anything like that!" "Well, okay, if you insist. But I'm always here to listen if you need me," Beli replied with a little more concern than she had initially.

As the two girls walked out of the locker room and into the hall, Kyanna glimpsed at Beli from the side and decided to just ask, "Say, Beli…. I've got a question." Beli turned and looked at Kyanna and asked, "Okay, what is it?"

Although she had resolved herself to ask, Kyanna suddenly realized she hadn't exactly put much thought into the question itself and decided to wing it, "Since you believe the whole spiritual thing, I wanted to ask you," Kyanna paused as she readied herself to ask a seemingly insane question, "What would you do if you had met, and sorta befriended, an angel?" Beli stopped in her tracks, obviously caught off guard by the question, "What would I do? If I met an angel?" Kyanna laughed awkwardly at the Beli's shocked expression, even for a spiritual person in general, asking such a crazy question was in and of itself crazy. "Yeeeaaah. I know it's kind of a crazy question, but I'd really like to know what you would do. Obviously, in the _extremely_ unlikely case that a freaky situation like that were to ever happen."

Beli lowered her head and gazed at the floor as she placed her thumb and pointer finger on her chin and ponder the question for a few seconds. Moments later, she lifted her head, smiled and continued walking forward, "Well, let me ask you a question first. Hypothetically speaking, would I know for sure that this person was a genuine angel or would I need proof first?" Kyanna walked besides Beli and replied hastily, "You knew! Let's just say that he had shown you undeniable proof that he was an angel! What then?" "Well, in that case, I honestly can't say what I would do. I guess I would try to find out why an angel had appeared before me in the first place," Beli replied thoughtfully despite something Kyanna just said catching her attention.

"Find out, huh?" Kyanna muttered quietly, "Yeah, I guess that would have been the most logical thing to do, huh?" Beli stared at Kyanna and then teasingly asked, "So… what's his name?" "Well, he said his name was Cross, but he also said his last name was Infinitus; which I gotta be honest sounds really kinda made up," Kyanna responded instinctively and with a tone of excitement before suddenly catching herself. "Hmmm, so his name is Cross, huh?" Beli asked with intrigue.

"Hey, cut that out!" Kyanna cried childishly as she bumped her shoulder against Beli's who was having a pleasant laugh at Kyanna's expense. As the two girls exited the gym, Beli turned to Kyanna and joked, "You know, it's usually girls whom are called angels, not the guys." "Err, I knew I shouldn't have asked," Kyanna groaned with embarrassment.

As Beli prepared to part ways with Kyanna she felt she had to ask, "Kyanna, let me ask you this," Kyanna's expression became slightly serious, "rather than being a genuine angel or not; was this Cross person a genuinely good person or not?"

As Kyanna pondered the question, she immediately recalled everything she had seen Cross do since they first met: He had found her son and returned him without expecting, or even asking, anything in return (at least not until she had offered), he had protected her and her son from a bunch of thugs, when one of them pulled a gun on them Cross had, without any apparent concern for his own well being, rushed at the guy and stopped him; yes, technically, he did kill the guy but it was justifiable; when her friend Tiffany was feeling troubled he consoled her, and even when that little bitch Audrey was bad mouthing some guy, when he saw she was in danger Cross protected her even after all the horrible things she had done to him.

Kyanna smiled as Cross' image appeared in her mind. Seeing this, Beli smiled happily, "Well, there's your answer." Kyanna's expression momentarily changed from pleasant to surprised, then back to pleasant, "Yeah, I guess you're right. I guess I was busy focusing on one thing that I forgot about all the other things." Kyanna paused for a second as she recalled the same thing Cross had told Tiffany, "Once I stopped wallowing in darkness and started looking at things from a positive perspective, I was able to find the answers all by myself." Beli was a bit surprised, "Is that something he said?" Kyanna nodded. "Well, I guess he really is one of the good ones," Beli finished than turned and walked off towards the park.

Kyanna turned the other way and made for the mall, "Yeah, he really is."

As she walked the upper level of the mall, Kyanna made for the Sports utilities store, she had wanted to buy some things before she headed home. Once inside, she saw a familiar pair of blonde pigtails tied with red ribbons on top; the owner of said hairstyle was standing in front of a large board advertising sports themed ribbons, busy contemplating which ones of the available tens to she could buy. "If you get any cuter, I may not be able to let you watch my one year son," Kyanna joked as she stood behind the young woman. The blonde girl turned and smiled; "Ha-ha, very funny," Tiffany gibed sarcastically, but playfully. She walked over and hugged Kyanna then said, "If little Phili starts looking at me like that, then you've got bigger problems!" "I know right?" Kyanna retorted with a chuckle.

As the two girls shopped around the store Tiffany was the first to ask, "So…. Have you heard from him lately?" Tiffany asked cautiously, realizing that Cross was a rather touchy subject for Kyanna. "Nope; the man's been gone for almost two days now and I haven't seen hide nor hair of him!" Kyanna replied with an uninterested tone that was clearly forced. Tiffany stared at Kyanna for a second; she really wanted to press the subject but then recalled what had happened two days ago just after Cross had vanished into thin air.

Kyanna, Nikki, and even Audrey cornered Kyanna as they bombard her with question after question, not giving the poor girl a moment to give a complete response.

"Did he really just disappear like that!?" Nikki eagerly inquired in what appeared to be a genuine state of unparalleled interest.

"What the hell did he do to Charlie? What was with that shouting? It sounded like a fucking hurricane!" Audrey barked, the sound of fear still present in her voice.

"Kyanna, seriously, what was that guy? That thing he did just now was definitely not normal!" Tiffany stated, desperately trying to make sense of what had just happened.

As all three girls continuously hounded Kyanna with questions, she tried desperately to give them answers she felt were reasonably believable, though needless to say, she didn't get very far. To be quite frank, it would have been hard enough explaining to them the fact that Cross was an angel, an Angel of Darkness to be more precise, so how could she explain what had just happened to them without mentioning that he was an Angel. Perhaps feeling as overwhelmed as his mother, Philip began crying loudly, forcing the girls to end their interrogation and Kyanna to head home.

Needless to say, for Kyanna and Tiffany, the last two days had not done much to close the apparent rift that had formed between the two. Tiffany wanted more than anything at the moment to get answers but certainly not at the expense of losing one of her closest friends. "Say, I was thinking of heading to the Corkscrew Carnival later tonight, you wanna come?" Tiffany asked sheepishly hoping that Kyanna wouldn't presume this was merely another opportunity Tiffany was gonna use to pelt her with questions. Kyanna looked at her and asked, "The carnival? Wouldn't you usually go to Lusties Nightclub?"

Tiffany's face suddenly went sickly pale, "Yeah, well, the thing is…. my mom texted me she was gonna head there tonight and that we should get together and make it a girls night out." Kyanna knew well enough Tiffany and her mother Jessie were on really bad terms, mostly due to Tiffany, so when Tiffany mentioned her mother, it wasn't as an excuse. "The last time we had a 'girls night out', she invited a bunch of her "fellow actresses"; when they weren't smoking like crazy, they were talking about the different 'sizes' of the male actors they had worked with. I just got fed up with it and left, I don't even think she realized I was gone." Tiffany's expression went from sick to hurt; Kyanna walked up behind her and hugged her from behind, "Hey, don't sweat the details, the two of us can go out tonight and forget about our problems with some good clean fun!" Tiffany smiled and joyfully exclaimed, "Yeah!"

Later that evening, at the Corkscrew Carnival, Kyanna and Tiffany were busy throwing their troubles away with exciting rides, carnival junk food, and a skillfully won plush toy for each. Tiffany had long since forgotten her mom, Kyanna had left her son in the reliable hands of his babysitter, and both girls left the Angel of Darkness somewhere in the back of their minds. Not even running into Audrey and Nikki could have ruined their fun, until all four of them found themselves standing together in line for the roller coaster. "Oh god, why are you here?" Audrey groaned as she stood directly behind Kyanna. "That's my line! Aren't you supposed to be in some dark corner at Lusties? No doubt provoking someone like usual," Kyanna retorted harshly.

"Hey, hey, guys. Come on, we're all here to have fun so let's just try to get along at least for a little while, okay." Tiffany begged, hopping not to choose between having to side with either of her friends. "Yeah, you guys. After this, let's go win some free shit, I've got all the games here figured out," Nikki boasted proudly. "Yeah, okay." "Fine, whatever." Kyanna and Audrey retorted respectively.

All in all, the girls enjoyed their evening. For the last hour and a half, they enjoyed several rides, indulged in sweet and greasy food, played numerous games (with Nikki proving her prowess), and laughed as if the four of them had been friends their whole lives. Even Kyanna and Audrey found one another seemingly endurable for the time being.

As the girls left the carnival, the four of them continued down the road together, the festive sounds and joyful screams growing fainter with every step they took. "Well, gotta admit that was a lot more fun than I had expected it to be," Nikki confessed, a hint of exhaustion and glee in her voice. Audrey threw her arm around Nikki and childishly quipped, "See? Leaving your room and actually existing once in a while can be fun!" "Come on Audrey, I don't stay in my room all the time," Nikki retorted embarrassed but with a smile. Tiffany and Kyanna laughed at the two exchange remarks, and then smiled at each other; "This was fun. We should really do it again sometime," Kyanna admitted to Tiffany, "Yeah, maybe next time we can all meet up at the same time and enjoy it together!"

The four of them together was almost picturesque, despite their flaws and personal issues, at that moment the four of them had put aside all that and were actually able to enjoy themselves with each other's company. At least until they walked into a familiar face.

"Well, well, if it ain't the yappity little bitch," the four girls suddenly stopped as Charlie stood about eight feet away from them. "Ugh, seriously? And this night was going so well too!" Audrey groaned as she raised her head to the sky then trained her sights back on Charlie. "Yeah, yeah, keep talking. With a mouth like yours, my friends are gonna love you," Charlie retorted sarcastically. Suddenly, two guys appeared behind Charlie as five other guys walked up from behind the girls; their creepy laughs sending chills down Kyanna and Tiffany spines. "Hey, Charlie, you didn't tell me she'd have friends," one of his accomplices stated creepily as he eyed Nikki perversely. "Dude, check out the tits on that one, they're huge! We're gonna have some fun with her!" spouted another one from behind Charlie as he stripped Kyanna with his eyes.

Kyanna, being the oldest, shielded Nikki with her arm while Audrey and Tiffany backed themselves up against Nikki and Kyanna's backs all the while covering their chests with their arms. "Calm down boys," came a voice that sounded too deep to belong to any of the guys in front of them, "there's plenty to go around." As Kyanna and Nikki turned around, they saw the same as Tiffany and Audrey, a giant of a man standing well over eight feet tall with enough muscle to bench press a bus; admittedly, the man's appearance seemed almost inhuman. "Got that right boss! So, which one you want, huh?" sneered one of the guys standing in front of him. "Doesn't matter; you boys know I'm not picky," answered the behemoth with heartless emotion. "Works fine for me, but the red head bitch is mine; gotta score to settle with her," Charlie said as he punched his hand into his other palm then started towards Audrey.

The feeling of terror running down her entire body, Audrey faced the approaching Charlie with the look of a small rabbit cornered by a large python. Kyanna slowly raised her arm in front of the terrified French girl, instinctively trying to protect the small girl. Seeing this Charlie smiled venomously and mocked, "What? You wanna go first? Hey, that works for me too. When we're done with all of you, you're gonna be seeing stars!"

In that instant, the heads of the two guys standing directly behind Charlie suddenly lit up with piercing light flashing from within their skulls. Their eyes and mouths being the only visible escape for this almost ethereal light; and as their head glowed terrifyingly, they let out screams filled with an unearthly pain. Charlie turned just as the light faded from the now two dead husks; and as he watched the two corpses fall to the ground, he instinctively stepped back before seeing the bottom of a size ten crash into his face.

The four girls ducked on impulse as Charlie's body went sailing clear over their heads; as they turned and saw the young man lying on his back, gurgling and struggling to breathe, the sound of something whisking itself over their heads caught their attention. Before they could look up however, a young man had landed half way between them and the remaining thugs; as he stood up he bore the appearance of a twenty four year old man wearing all black including a black blazer with gold trimming and a silver emblem of a sword fused with an infinity symbol standing right-side up on its back. "What the hell? The hell do think you are, huh? Some kind of wannabe hero or something?" howled a thug, the sound of his fear resonating with the aura of darkness that permeated from his being.

"What am I? That depends on who you ask," the young man responded sinisterly, "some call me an Anomaly. Others call me a Champion. Others call me by my chosen name: Cross," As he finished the last statement, the young man reached into the left side of his blazer and pulled out a meter long, obsidian colored sword; a simplistic weapon in design, it resembled those of the thin, double-edged swords used by the knights of old, with only two distinct differences, the first being the markings carved into the blade and second, and certainly the most important, was that this sword was forged by a being far more powerful than any mortal could possibly fathom.

The man trained the point of the sword on those in front of him and suddenly jumped a good fifteen feet into the air. As he fell to earth with the speed of a small comet, he drop-kicked the towering boss and sent him skidding back several meters before coming to a complete stop. The young man then turned his gaze on the five standing grunts, "you all however, can just die!" With that, he lunged at the man standing at the center of the five and ran his sword right through his chest, a flash of light signaling his soul's departure from its host. For the two standing closest to the center, a skillful spin sent the blade slicing through one man's torso while the other man was dealt a neck breaking kick to the head. As for the last two, one backed up against the wall and slid to the ground as the swordsman approached him; standing before him, a reaper appropriately dressed in black, placed his free hand upon the frightened man's head and, with a surge of ethereal light, his soul departed for the Gate of Judgment. As for the other, he humbly fell to his knees; hands tightly clasped together, his forehead grinding itself into the concrete sidewalk, pleading penitently for mercy. The swordsman stood over him and watched the poor fool pitifully beg for his life…. only to run his blade directly into the groveling man's back, right through his heart, and out his chest, a surge of light seen searing itself into the concrete.

The swordsman then walked over to Charlie, still lying on the ground, still gurgling with every breath he took, still bleeding from his mouth, eyes, and ears. The swordsman knelt down on one knee, looked over Charlie from above and said, "You should've just manned up and walked away." Charlie knew, right then and there, this was the man he encountered two days ago, the same man who stopped him from punching Audrey the first time, the same man who lifted him six inches off the ground with a single hand, the same man whose voice frightened him to the center of his soul…. and the same man who had given him a chance to avoid all this. Cross placed his hand on Charlie's forehead, "May God have mercy on your soul…. for I will not." Unlike the others, Charlie's head did not flash with a blaze of light but erupted with a flash of darkness in the exact same manner as those before him; he was dead.

As the young man stood up once again, the voice from the large man could be heard close behind him, "You… retched… little cur! How dare you intervene with my duties! How dare you execute my faithful subordinates!" Cross turned his gaze on the kneeling behemoth, a line of red blood dripping from the side of his mouth, as the giant got to feet Cross took a step towards him, sword in his right hand and mocked, almost offended, "Your 'duties'? Your 'faithful' subordinates? You've some nerve using those words you fallen retch. Do you still believe yourself to be a servant of the Lord? A soldier of God? One of those who willingly stands, fights, and readily dies for the cause?"

Cross took another step towards the man, who, now standing up, was easily two or three feet taller than Cross, "Don't insult me, you retched abomination. I have stood besides those who were truly devout! Those who were truly faithful! And you, you disgusting creature, are not like any of them!"

The giant glared at Cross and his offensive labels, "You dare look down on me? I have faced countless evils in this petty feud between God and Lucifer! I have lost countless allies because of God's refusal to strike down the Morningstar! And now, after countless millennia, I am to stand here and endure ridicule by the likes of _you_! An Anomaly!" At these words, the behemoth unfurled three pairs of crimson red wings from his back, "I am a Seraphim! Mightiest of God's Angels! Second only to the first three Archangels and the Morningstar himself! What power has the likes of you to look down on me?"

Cross leered at the Seraphim, unfazed by his overzealous display of dominance. "Seraphim, huh? A war angel with a bad attitude and a penchant for using ethereal fire to get the job done. I've heard of you guys; you're only deployed to deal with prime evils or the equivalent. Please…. you're nothing but an old man, flaunting a once honored position now wasted on the likes of you," Cross retorted in disgust to the six winged angel standing before him. The same six winged angel that had grown tired of being insulted, "You retched piece of garbage; what power have you to dishonor me?!" The Seraphim reeled his fist back and, with unearthly strength, attacked Cross with the roar of a monster.

Despite the Seraphim's enormous strength, his fist was brought to a sudden stop by Cross' left hand. The scene was truly unreal, a young man less than six feet tall had stopped the hand of a nine foot, six winged, muscular angel; it was so ridicules, it was almost funny. As Cross peered into the eyes of the Seraphim, "What power?" he asked as he unfurled **ten** jet black wings, three on the outer sides for a total of six and a total of four adjacent to themselves closer to his spine, "…. enough." Terror infected the Seraphim as he attempted to reel himself away from Cross, an effort that proved meaningless as with a single flap of a single pair of wings, Cross lunged at the frightened war angel, pierced his chest with his obsidian sword and brought the giant to the ground on his back.

As ethereal light began to erupt from the behemoth's body, Cross turned to Kyanna and the other girls and yelled, "Shut your eyes!" The girls responded in time, as the Seraphim's body exploded with a divine flash that would have scorched the eyes of anyone who was foolish enough to bear witness. As the gale-like force from the eruption ceded, the girls uncovered their eyes to witness a sight they could never have dreamed of seeing; as the Seraphim's body lay dead on the ground, surrounding the now empty vessel were what looked like fossilized impressions of his wings, all six of them, in the concrete and in the side of the building. The girls were speechless; while Cross, his ten majestic wings still visible, 'sheathed' his sword back into the left side of his blazer. He turned and appeared instantly in front of the girls, grabbed Kyanna by the wrist and enveloped the others with his wings before they all vanished in the blink of an eye.

In the span of two minutes Cross had dropped off Audrey, Nikki, and Tiffany at their respective places, leaving each and every one of them shocked, confused, and all around bewildered. Lastly, he 'landed' just outside of Kyanna's place, the young woman still embracing him as he retracted his wings and made them vanish. Kyanna slowly loosened her grip till the two of them were separated; the two remained silent for a moment as Kyanna maintained her gaze on Cross' chest while he stared at her from a slightly higher angle. Moments later, the door to Kyanna's place opened and there stood an older woman about thirty some odd years, she jumped back in surprise when she saw the two of them, then turned her eyes towards Kyanna and said, "Oh, Kyanna, I heard the door creak but I wasn't sure it was you." Kyanna turned to the woman and awkwardly responded, "Oh… yeah. I'm home, I guess." As Cross inspected the woman, he presumed her to be Philip's babysitter; "Are you okay, Kyanna? You look a tad pale?" She asked concerned before giving Cross a suspicious glance. Kyanna quickly waved her hands as she vouched for Cross, claiming that he was her boyfriend, and that he had brought her home because she wasn't feeling well. Cross could tell by the darkness seeping from her that she did not trust him, but she accepted Kyanna's explanation.

Kyanna invited Cross inside, which he humbly accepted; once inside Cross glanced about while Kyanna and the babysitter went into the other room. After a minute or so, the two ladies came back and the two exchanged goodbyes. After the sitter had left, an awkward silence fell on the room; several minutes passed while the two said nothing. Cross, stepped towards Kyanna and quietly said, "I guess I should get going." As Crossed passed Kyanna he felt a tug on his sleeve, he turned to see her holding it with a trembling hand; Cross turned the whole of his body and saw her whole body was shacking. "Kyanna?" Cross asked; Kyanna let go of his sleeved then embraced him with a grip he'd never experienced before. Her trembling even more evident than before, Cross could feel the fear in her darkness, the images produced by her terrified mind appeared vividly in his own; all this time Cross believed that it his own actions that terrified her but this was not true. On the contrary, the images Kyanna saw in her mind were thoughts of what might have happened to her had he not shown up when he did.

Cross could feel her pain course through him, the darkness produced by her fear and sadness thicker than the shade of his own wings. He wrapped her in his embrace, stroking her long black hair comfortingly, all the while absorbing her darkness into himself. As the minutes passed, her trembling body began to settle until she eased her grip around Cross; still she held him in her embrace though now it was an affectionate embrace rather than a cling for support.

After a few seconds Kyanna buckled under her own weight; as she slid to the ground Cross caught her and, with unimaginable ease, lifted her up in his arms, cradling her gently and securely. As he carried her through her place he found her room and, with one of his wings whisked the cover from the bed to the side. Rounding the corner of her bed, he placed her gently on top of the mattress; he leaned over and took off her shoes, placing them neatly under her bed; after which, he reached over to grab the covers and pulled them over her. Kyanna reached out from under the covers and took hold of his sleeve again and quietly pleaded, "Please. Please, stay. Even just for a little while…. Don't leave me." Cross could see tears welling up in her eyes; he gently wiped them away, smiled and said, "Okay."

Kyanna returned his smile with her own; for the first time in a very long day, she felt a sense of reassurance and security. She wrapped her arms around Cross' neck and drew him over her and onto the bedside next to her; Cross wrapped his arm around Kyanna's back and embraced gently but firmly enough to where she felt at ease. He momentarily stopped his embrace only to re-cover her with the bedspread before once again placing his arm around her side and caressed her upper back.

It had been a long time since Kyanna felt such warmth in her bed and, unlike the last time, this man was not sleeping with her for pleasure, but perhaps, she secretly hoped, for the same reason she had. She pulled herself closer towards Cross till she could hear the beating of his heart, it was very calm and yet very strong. She steadily felt herself drifting off to sleep, the beating heart of the man she fell in love with still echoing strongly in her ears. And as the seconds passed, Kyanna fell asleep, embraced in the arms of her own personal guardian angel, her own Angel of Darkness.

As the sound of sirens could be heard approaching, a pair of dainty-purple ballerina shoes planted themselves right next to the Seraphim's empty vessel; as the owner of these shoes knelt down, she curiously poked the vessel until it began to disintegrate into ethereal particles. Once completed evaporated, the young woman whom had been kneeling besides the vessel stood up, turned her head to starry sky and giggled, "Wow, angels duking it out in the middle of her territory like that? Venus is gonna be pissed." And with a soft flash of glitter and sparkle, the young woman vanished like a ghost, her last words echoing with the approaching sirens, "This is gonna get interesting."

To be Continued.


	5. Chapter 5 Plans and Choices

**Well, Finals are over and here's chapter 5. I wanted to give a bit of insight to some, or in this case one, of the minds of the non-huniepop Characters.**

 **As per usual, let me know what you all think and see what I can do.**

 **Enjoy the holidays!**

Chapter 5: Plans and Choices

As a blanket of clouds caressed the face of the Sun at its 4:00 position, Archangel Raphael stared stoically up at said clouds as his mind filtered and sorted the prayers he'd made time for.

From one dimension, a nurse prayed for a soldier on her table, his legs torn from him and the rest of his body covered in third-degree burns... he would make it.

In another dimension, a young male student on his way to his interview for Harvard Medical School was instead hovering over a victim of a car crash, his prayers focused solely on God giving the victim strength as his trembling hands pressed a make-shift bandage that was once his dress-shirt over the victim's chest, the sounds of the paramedic standing besides him in the racing ambulance stating, 'just hold on a little longer, we'll reach the hospital in less than two minutes'... Raphael gave a slight reflexive smirk, the young man was so focused on stopping his would-be patient's bleeding that he failed to notice the man's ID tag: Dean of Medicine, Harvard Medical; Raphael had a good feeling about both the victim's chances of survival and the young student's chances at being accepted.

In another dimension, however, a surgeon prayed that his hands would be steady, that his team would be vigilant, that his skills would be enough... to save a ten year old child from what many deemed an 'inoperable' brain tumor.

As the sound of fluttering wings drew the Archangel's attention to his left, a young mortal, who by a strange turn of events became one of God's most devout and depended soldiers, walked towards him and his younger brother Gabriel.

"That was quick, you've been gone no longer than an hour," observed Archangel Raphael as his younger brother walked up behind him, "we expected you to be gone at least a little while longer, Chris."

Chris stopped a couple feet short of the two Archangels, searched the immediate area then asked, "Where's Michael? Don't tell me he's gone and kicked it?"

Archangel Gabriel chuckled, "Naw, Raphael finished healing him about ten minutes ago then he just up and took off!"

"Seriously?" Chris responded with a mixed tone of shock and concern, "The man had a sword run through his chest and after just two days of healing, he just waltzes off?"

Archangel Raphael smiled and shrugged his shoulders, "Pay him no mind; he's a tough soldier, he'll survive. Besides, with everything that's happened, I can sympathize him wanting to get everything resolved."

"Yeah, I guess," Chris responded, unsatisfied with the Archangel's two younger brothers not giving their older brother more concern. "Well, anyway, before I could get past the Gate, Saint Peter gave me this and relayed orders from God." Chris pulled a rolled up scroll from inside his leather jacket and handed it to Archangel Raphael, who then proceeded to unroll it then read it, positioning it slightly to his side so Archangel Gabriel could read it as well. "Based off this information, there's a pretty good chance that this is where Cross landed," Chris stated as the two archangel continued reading the parchment in silence.

Archangel Gabriel was the first to look up from the parchment, his older brother followed almost immediately after, and stated, "Okay... nine people dead. Its sad, but it happens. We are fighting a war and there are always casualties in war."

Chris pointed at something on the parchment, then said, "That's what I figured, but look at the C.O.D."

The two Archangels reread the parchment before simultaneously looking up, the same expression of disbelief on both their faces. "Ethereal-style execution?" Archangel Gabriel asked, "The cause of death for all nine of them... was Ethereal-style execution! Are you sure about that?"

Chris nodded and responded, "Yes! I even asked Saint Peter; he confirmed it."

"This can't be right," Archangel Raphael pondered aloud, "What about the Reaper who harvested their souls? What did they have to say? Can they confirm this?"

"I asked about that and the thing is..." Chris paused in his response, "there were no Reapers."

"WHAT?!" exclaimed both Archangels in unison.

"Yeah. Saint Peter said that that's how the information appeared on his docket _and_ that the souls appeared before the Gate without a Reaper escort present; therefore, he found no evidence contrary to the C.O.D.," Chris continued, the Archangels processing his every word as if it were gospel.

"Yeah, based on those facts alone it sounds like these were, in fact, Ethereal-style executions," Archangel Raphael concluded, "Still, was there any indication as to who's responsible for this? I mean, killing mortals is already taboo, but using these types of methods is not only... extreme, unnecessary, and just plain overkill; but without justifiable reason, this is grounds for not only having one's wings 'clipped', but maybe even being cast into Perdition!"

"That's the other thing," Cross sheepishly stated, "As you both may already know; if an angel goes rogue and does something like this then, obviously, there's usually a lack of _some_ information." The two Archangels continued to listen intently, awaiting Chris' point, "However, aside from the usual information, ways they lived, good deed performed, sins committed, and all that stuff needed for them to be judged appropriately; there was absolutely no other information what so ever."

The Archangels looked at Chris with sheer stunned expressions. "None at all?" Archangel Gabriel asked in confirmation; Chris confirmed his suspicions and continued, "That, along with some other factors we're all familiar with, leads me to believe that this dimension _is_ where Cross landed."

As Archangel Raphael silently mouth some information at the bottom of the parchment, he looked up with a depressed expression and a long groan, "I think I know where these coordinates are, and if this is the place I think it is... our task just became a lot more complicated." It was unusual for the Archangel to **openly** show signs of annoyance regarding anything as this was his nature.

Chris and Archangel Gabriel exchanged concerned glances then looked back at Archangel Raphael. "Umm... so what's the problem? If this is, in fact, where Cross currently is; shouldn't we just go and at least check?" Chris asked knowing full well that in this line of work, nothing was ever, _**EVER**_ , that simple.

Archangel Raphael looked at the young man and responded, "In most cases, yes; it would be that simple. The problem with this world, in particular, is..." The Archangel paused for a moment then concluded, "the person we have charged with this world is a... Pagan goddess."

"Pagan... goddess?" Chris asked, the look of utter disbelief on his face all the more evident by the offended tone in his voice, "Archangel, with all due respect, you expect me to believe that God, the vary same God who wrote _in stone_ 'thou shall have no other gods before me', has a Pagan deity in his service?" The elder Archangel kept his silence mostly due to his own embarrassment with regards to answering that question. Chris turned and looked at the younger of the two Archangels who turned his head away in embarrassment. "ARE YOU SERIOUS?" Chris exclaimed in understandable shock, "With all the things God has denied Cross for all his faithful service and the King's got a Pagan on the payroll?"

Chris turned and walked a few steps opposite of the Archangels, his frustrated venting barely audible to the Archangels.

"Look, when these false would-be deities were commanded to bow before God, only one of them was smart enough to actually do it!" Archangel Gabriel argued, though the apparent lack of conviction in his own voice spoke volumes regarding his own belief, "As a sign of good faith, so long as she continued to abide by the Law and remained loyal to both God and the cause, he allowed her to 'govern' a world of her own." Chris turned his head and gave the younger Archangel a sarcastic 'yeah right' expression. "Look, I get that, in a black and white sense, it's highly contradictory; hell, it's borderline hypocritical," Archangel Gabriel suddenly looked up and said, "Yeah, I know Dad, I'm just trying to make a point here; besides you gotta admit it doesn't exactly look good!" A sudden and strong gust of wind blew past the three almost knocking them on their feet; "Well, anyway, as you can see Dad stands by his decision."

Chris turned his head to face the sky, scowled, and thought, "Really? Seriously?"

Archangel Raphael rolled the parchment back up, walked over to Chris, handed it to him and said, "Well, either way, it doesn't matter. We have our orders, and unless we know better, we have a plan." Chris took the scroll and tucked it away in his jacket, his frustration still evident on his face; all he needed to focus on was finding Cross and making sure he was okay.

"Well, on that note," Archangel Gabriel started, as he walked pass Chris and Archangel Raphael, "I guess our first stop is Sky Garden than, right?" Chris raised his eye brow at the name and repeated, "Sky Garden?" "Yup, that's where Venus keeps herself along with her subordinates," Archangel Gabriel replied carefree; his two companions couldn't help but feel the young Archangel was a tad eager to reach their destination.

As Chris started after Archangel Gabriel, he paused and stated, "Oh yes, Raphael. Saint Peter also gave me a letter; said God told him to tell me to give it to you and only you." Chris pulled a small folded letter from his jacket and handed it to the Archangel.

As he read it silently, the Archangel's demeanor became a bit depressed; Chris stared at the Archangel for moment then asked, "Raphael, you okay?"

The Archangel folded the letter and placed it inside his chain mail, he then turned to Chris replied, "Yes. Don't worry, it has nothing to do with our task or Cross. It was just... it was just Dad making a point."

Chris, more than most in all of Creation, knew his place in relevance to the higher entities around him; so he knew it was not his place to press the Archangel for details; if he wanted his input, the Archangel would feel it necessary to ask for it.

As Chris turned and made after Archangel Gabriel, Archangel Raphael paused for a moment as he looked to the sky and whispered to himself, "Sorry, doctor. But, sometimes, no amount of preparation, or prayer, can help you... even to save a child."

As birds chirped outside her bedroom windowsill, Kyanna groaned as she turned on her side. A break in between the curtains letting a ray of sunshine streak across her face. She squinted as the ray of light met her eyes then turned her back to it. As her eyes adjusted to the other side of her bedroom she raised her head from her pillow and saw, to her disappointment, the other side of her bed was empty.

She sighed sadly, threw the covers to the side and headed for the bathroom to shower. As the water streamed from her shower head, she recalled the events from last night in surprising detail. The image of her and the other girls being surrounded by thugs, the image of Cross drawing a sword from his jacket and executing all eight of them, the image of the giant Seraphim spreading his six fiery red wings, the image of Cross spreading his ten majestic pitch-black wings, a sudden flash of light and the image of the Seraphim's wings leaving fossilized impressions around his dead body. Kyanna remembered all of it.

Another image she remembered, much to her own embarrassment, was her wrapping her arms around Cross' neck as she asked him to stay; her face reddening as she recalled pulling the Angel of Darkness into her bed to sleep besides her as she embraced him. "Oh my god, I can't believe I did that!" Kyanna moaned aloud as she buried her face in her hands, the ears as red as her face.

As she dried herself from head to toe, she couldn't resist the sting of disappointment as she remembered waking up with him gone. She refused to believe that what had happened last night was some sugar induced dream of some sorts. That Cross did save her, Tiffany, Nikki, and even Audrey; that she did ask him to stay with her, and that she did fall asleep listening to the sounds of his heartbeat. As she came to realize that it was all irrelevant, she sighed again; also realizing that, even though she had the day off, she still needed to feed Philip, poor little thing must be hungry.

As she walked out of the bathroom, the smell of cooked eggs, fried bacon, and toasted waffles wafted across her nose, as well as the sound of her one year old cooing and giggling happily in the kitchen. Still wrapped in only a towel, Kyanna walked down the hall towards the kitchen where, in between Philip's cooing, she could hear understandable one-sided conversation. As she stepping into the kitchen, she saw Philip seated in his high chair, being fed by Cross, his back facing Kyanna, as he apparently had been regaling the toddler with one of his adventures, much to the little one's enjoyment, "Oh no, I'm serious. There I was, pinned up against the wall by the Prime Evil. He roars in my face and next thing the both of us hear is, 'Warning! Warning! Nuclear launch detected.'" Philip squealed in utter glee, unaware of the weight behind the story teller's details, then turned and reached out his hands, "Ma-ma."

Cross turned to face Kyanna, a smile on his face along side a spoonful of strained apples, and said, "the next thing I remember was a flash of light, sailing through the air at break neck speed, then landing twenty feet away from the pearly gate." Kyanna giggled in response, she couldn't tell just how much of that story was actually true, but she was somewhat eager to hear how it started; Cross grabbed a napkin, wiped his face and said, "Breakfast is ready. But there is one thing that, while knowing full well that this is your house, I should make clear." Kyanna's expression became serious in response to Cross' statement; "Whenever I cook, ladies are expected to wear something appropriate or nothing at all. And, fortunately for me, I have nothing appropriate for you to wear." Kyanna paused for a moment then looked down at her 'attire'; she then looked at Cross, smirked and retorted, "Well, unfortunately for you, I do." With a giggle, she shook her hips, fluttering the bottom edge of the towel provocatively, before making for her bedroom.

As she prepared to close the bedroom door behind her, she heard Philip coo and Cross say, "Hey, just because you've seen her without the towel doesn't mean your _that_ far ahead of me." She could hear Philip coo and giggle in response. Kyanna paused for a moment, letting the towel fall to the floor, then opened her mouth as she pondered giving into the temptation of calling Cross into her room. Ultimately, she closed the door and decided, with regret, that she would hold off on that, at least until her relationship with him was on sturdier ground. At that moment, Kyanna fully realized what she felt for Cross; last night she all but admitted that she cared for him and here she was, now, tempted to try and seduce him.

As these thoughts plagued her mind, Kyanna dressed her self in her favorite white and blue stripped t-shirt with matching blue pants. She carefully applied her makeup and brushed her hair, recalling, blissfully, the sensation of Cross stroking her hair last night and thought to herself how she wanted him to do that again later tonight. As she put on her shoes, her phone chimed to a text from Tiffany: Beach later, meet Mall for swimsuits. Although it was a text, Kyanna couldn't help but feel its seemed somewhat emotionless, perhaps because she was nervous about meeting Tiffany again after what happened last night. She responded and then contacted Philip's babysitter before walking over to the kitchen where Cross was cleaning up and Philip was reaching out for his mother's embrace.

Kyanna cuddled her son before placing him back in his highchair then sat down to eat, all the while Cross was busy washing the dishes behind her. As she ate her waffles, she noticed the picturesque setting of her kitchen and, for the first time, felt a form of happiness she'd not felt before. As she finished, she told Cross of her plans for the day and asked him to come along; an hour later, Philip's babysitter from last night arrived, greeting Kyanna and Philip like family, while still being wary of Cross. Kyanna gave Philip one last kiss goodbye before she and Cross left; once outside, Cross offered Kyanna his arm and once she took hold they vanished with nothing but the sound of fluttering trailing behind.

"Uuuugh, Nikki, for God's sake! Please just shut up!" Audrey growled as she and Tiffany endured Nikki's seemingly unending chatter.

"But Audrey, I'm telling you it all makes sense. I spent all of last night looking it all up and I've just barely scratched the surface!" Nikki argued energetically, her eyes wide with excitement as she pressed the subject with near obsessive insistence.

Apparently, after Cross had dropped Nikki off at her place, she truly did spend the following ten hours investigating into every little detail her internet browser could possibly scrounge up. Information regarding angels, Seraphim, and such were self hammered into the eighteen year old girl's head and she intended to share that knowledge with the world, starting with her two closest friends, much to their dismay.

"So, as it turns out, Seraphim _do_ have six wings, they do use fire, they're considered to be the strongest of angels, and some theorize they're even stronger than the archangels!" Nikki excitedly proclaimed to Audrey, who was genuinely contemplating whether or not to punch the poor girl into silence.

As Nikki continued to ramble Audrey turned to Tiffany, her own face appearing extremely exhausted, and whispered, "We have got to get this girl laid! At least then she'll be too tired to talk!"

While Tiffany would normally be the first to defend Nikki from Audrey's harsh comments, this was one of those rare, once in a blue moon, moments where she wholly agreed with her, "Umm, Nikki, don't you think you're going a bit too far with this? I mean, we're not even sure what exactly happened last night!"

"Oh, come on, Tiffany! We all saw the same thing!" Nikki stated before pausing for a moment.

"Jeez, she finally stopped," Audrey sighed thankfully, "I don't know about angels, but there must be a God."

"God? Oh, wow," Nikki muttered as a huge smile slowly appeared across her face, "Now it totally makes sense! We've been chosen by a higher power to, like, save the world or something! That's why God sent an angel to protect us!"

Tiffany leered at Audrey, "Why'd you have to say something?" "Don't blame me! She's the one who's gone completely fanatic!" Audrey defended, "Oh... My... God! Nikki! Enough! Okay, just stop! This isn't one of your stupid video games okay! This is the real fucking world! And there is a real fucking explanation for everything that happened last night! None of it involving angels or God or space aliens or whatever! I can't believe you even believe in such crazy shit; I can't even fucking bring _myself_ to believe it!"

Audrey suddenly felt something pat her on the head, followed swiftly by a powerful electrical current run throughout the entirety of her body. After about five seconds Audrey buckled under the weight of her own body and fell to the ground like a dead fish, groaning as she endured the numbing sensation from head to toe. "How about now?" Cross asked sadistically, "If you want, I can up the voltage."

Cross and Kyanna had landed behind Audrey halfway through her rant and Cross felt it necessary to help her overcome her doubts. "You... fucking... bastard!" Audrey moaned as she struggled to stand up.

"Hey, don't blame me if you can't handle the truth," Cross retorted sarcastically, "We write this stuff on stone tablets, you don't believe it. We make national holidays out of it, you don't believe it. We show it to you, in your face, and you still don't believe it. I still question why Lucifer is so hell bent on claiming the lot of you."

Before Audrey could retort, Nikki forced pass her and began bombarding Cross with question after question, giving Kyanna an opportunity to talk to Tiffany, "Hey, so you doing okay?" "Yeah, I just had a bit of a hard time getting to sleep last night. With everything that happened, I guess I was just sorta... wired, ya know," Tiffany responded with her usual upbeat smile, "How about you? You look like your doing okay." "Me? Oh, I'm great! Since Cross stayed over at my place last night, I slept pretty well," Kyanna replied with a look of innocent satisfaction.

Tiffany, on the other hand, saw a perfect moment to tease her friend, "Oh, so he stayed over, huh? At least you made him sleep on the couch, right?" Kyanna's face turned a light shade of red, "Shut up! You two slept together?" "Only in the same bed, but its not like anything happened," Kyanna insisted, her face now a deeper shade of red.

Meanwhile, as Nikki was busy regaling Cross with her adventurous pursuit of the truth, Cross suddenly grabbed her by the lips and said, "Nikki, calm down! Look, based on everything you've said so far, not even ninety percent of any of it is even remotely correct." Nikki went silent, her expression was that of child whose dreams had been viciously crushed, "So... almost everything I researched was... wrong." "Yeah, sorry Nikki. That's what happens when you jump the gun," Cross stated, his attempts to comfort the young girl with a shattered spirit, "On a separate topic, weren't you ladies gonna shop for something?"

Tiffany walked over, placed a comforting hand on Nikki's shoulder, smiled at Cross and answered, "Yeah, we were gonna head to Turtle Bay Beach later today and we were gonna buy new swimsuits."

Cross' combat training unexpectedly started kicking, "Okay, so I guess I'll see you girls later than." Cross turned on the ball of his heel and started walking until Kyanna grabbed him by the shoulder, "Whoa, mister. And where exactly are you going?" "I dunno. To be honest, I was thinking of going back to that yogurt shop; I've had a hankering for that sour plum parfait for a while now," Cross replied, much to the girls' angst. To this Tiffany walked up and wrapped her arms around his left arm and ask, "So, let me get this straight, you're gonna stuff your face while a bunch of cute girls try on skimpy swim wear?"

Finally regaining feeling in her legs, Audrey shot up like a jack-in-box, "Wait, are saying you want _him_ to come along with us?" "Oh come on Audrey, its not like its a bad idea. Besides, he's an angel; its not like he's gonna do anything anyways," Nikki added as she wrapped her arms around Cross' right arm. Cross was surprised, despite being the youngest of the group, Nikki's endowment was surprisingly larger than one could tell, even through that oversize sweater of hers, Cross could make out a solid C. "Are you nuts? Having a guy we've only known for, like, two days tag along while we're changing clothes is, like, the worst possible idea ever; I'd rather take my chances in a hot car than go in a store with him!"

While he didn't want to admit it, Cross felt it was only right to do so; he separated himself from Tiffany and Nikki and said, "You know girls, Audrey does have a point."

"What?" the girls, including Audrey, simultaneously asked with shocked and confused expressions.

"I mean, one thing you have to understand is that while there is no power truly greater than God, 'choice' is the one true sovereign power in Creation," Cross explained, "God, himself, when he gave mortals the freedom of choice, made it so that even he could not take it away. No matter what command he gives to a mortal, they have the right to choose not to obey."

The girls exchanged confused looks. "So, does that mean you're gonna do something?" Tiffany asked as she, along with the others, took a reflexive step away from the Angel. At this, Cross scowled, groaned in offense, and clarified, "It means, while I may be a servant of the Lord, I do the capability to make my own decisions."

The girls took yet another step away, this time guarding their upper bodies with their arms. His eyes narrowing, the girls were beginning to pickup on his irritation and took yet another step backwards.

"Allow me to reiterate," Cross said, his irritation clearly present in his tone, "I'm sure you ladies have heard the old commandment, Thou Shall Not Kill, right?"

"Yeah," the four girls responded timidly.

"Well, case in point, just last night I made the decision to kill seven people, plus one angel, all to save your all's narrow assess," Cross continued as he stepped towards the girls huddled together.

"Well," Audrey timidly, yet pompously, remarked, "Its not like we asked you to go that far."

Nikki, Kyanna, and Tiffany stared at Audrey with shocked expressions, while Cross walked over and stood directly in front of her, towering almost menacingly over the 5'2 French girl. Despite her arrogant attitude, Audrey knew full well that the person in front of her wasn't like Charlie or the other whipped guys she was used to taking advantage of. He was something from a whole different plane than that of her own, with powers she couldn't even begin to comprehend, and here she was pissing him off by demeaning his efforts at protecting both her friends and herself.

Cross leaned down until he was at eye level with Audrey and said, "I am an Angel of Darkness; I can tell a lot about a person just by looking at the darkness they produce. And if what those guys were planning on doing to you isn't that big of deal to you..." Audrey slowly retreated backwards, never once breaking eye contact, until she was backed up against the wall. "...then I can very easily drag your sorry, ungrateful self down to the second circle of Hell where what those demons will do to you will have you crying on the floor begging for Death himself."

Audrey remained silent, her legs trembling uncontrollably, fighting desperately to hold back her tears as Cross mercilessly put her in her place, "I was fifteen, and all alone, when I traversed the nine Hells, I faced Lucifer himself in one-on-one combat and won, and I have single handedly faced evils the likes of which even the Archangels dare not face alone. I have gone to Hell just have one wayward soul raised back where it belongs when no other angel would even volunteer. The only reason you were spared such pain last night was because it was _my_ choice to intervene. You should show me some respect, I saved you from such perdition and I can just as easily _**throw you back**_!"

Though nowhere near as loud, his final words echoed with the same thunderous force they had had when he defended Audrey from Charlie the first time. As he slowly pulled himself back, Cross could see tears running down the sides of Audrey's face.

"Well then, we were gonna go shopping for swimsuits right?" Cross turned and asked the other three with a smile on his face, "Let see, if I remember correctly, skimpy swimsuit were on the second floor. Well, let's get going!" As he walked off towards the stairs Audrey slowly slid to the ground, her heart pounding as the adrenaline coursed through her veins.

Tiffany walked over to her, knelt down next to her and said, "Audrey, maybe it'd be wise not to piss off the guy who can literally kill you with his bare hands." Unable to speak, Audrey nodded her reply before Tiffany and Nikki helped her to her feet and she headed for the stairs, bobbing left and right.

Kyanna joined Nikki and Tiffany and, in a hushed voice, said, "Oh, we have got to talk about his past." The two nodding in agreement as they made after the Cross and Audrey.

To be continued...


	6. Chapter 6 Shopping

**Merry Christmas my avid readers enjoy chapter 6 and fear not for chapter 7 is not far behind!**

Chapter 6: Shopping

The Nine Circles of Hell, for every possibly conceivable sin in the whole of Creation, these nine levels were established to categorize, sort out, and ultimately punish accordingly those whom had chosen to live their lives as sinners or stray from God's word.

It was no exaggeration on his part when Cross said he had traversed these nine circles at the age of fifteen; a feat the likes of which neither the lords of Heaven nor the dregs of Hell had witnessed since the the Kingdom of the Fallen was first established.

Ironically, despite the indescribable horrors Cross had witnessed the three days he was down there, standing in the middle of sarongs and bikinis left the angel in a far more uncomfortable state. As Cross tried pointlessly to avoid the judging eyes of the other female patrons, he turned to Kyanna and irritably asked, "Can you hurry up please! I tired of having all these women judge me!"

Kyanna giggled softly in response and, keeping her attention on the fetching two-piece in her hands, responded, "Relax man. Believe me, no one here is judging you."

Cross leered at Kyanna from behind, "Believe _me_ , their darkness is telling me a different story. I don't even wanna mention what some of them are thinking about me."

"You sure you're not just being self-conscious," Kyanna retorted nonchalantly.

"No, I'm not. I bet you wouldn't be saying that either if you could hear some of the hate they're giving you."

Kyanna turned to Cross and, with astonishment, asked, "Why would they hate me! I don't even know these people!"

Cross turned to the side, put his hands behind his head and answered, "Now who's being self-conscious?" Irritated, Kyanna struck Cross' shin with her foot causing him to yelp loudly before he turned and said, "Hey, don't blame me just because these woman are jealous that you're body's more attractive than theirs."

Kyanna trained her attention on Cross' last statement, "Jealous? What... what do you mean jealous?"

As Cross massaged his throbbing shin, he looked up at Kyanna, sighed and said, "Pick up the Book, would you! 'Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shall not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor _**anything**_ that is thy neighbor's.'"

Kyanna's expression told Cross she was still confused by his earlier statement, so when he stood up he simplified, "Basically, when they see you they see an attractive young woman with a toned physique, beautiful appearance, and..." Cross paused between his explanation as his eyes drew to Kyanna's breasts; he quickly turned away as he felt himself blush and continued, "well, the point is, whether they admit it or not, I can tell a lot about a person based on their darkness. And what their darkness is telling me is, and I "quote", 'God, it's not fair. Why her? Jeez, I'd kill to have tits like those, just tell me who.' You get the idea, right?"

Kyanna stared at Cross silently with apparent surprise, to which Cross cocked his head to the side with a tired smirk and asked, "After everything that's happened so far, you're still surprised by all this? I mean come on, I gave you a run down of all this before!"

"Well yeah, but you gotta admit it does seem a little far fetched that you can tell a lot about a person just be their... 'darkness'," Kyanna confessed.

"Really?" Cross asked sarcastically before he scanned the immediate area. He found another couple about twenty feet away from Kyanna and himself standing in front of the changing rooms; he then walked over besides Kyanna and whispered in her ear, "You see those two? Well, here's what their darkness is telling me; _she_ has vanity issues so strong that I've little doubt demons can feed off her from well over thirty feet away, and _he_ has such an inferiority complex that he's willing to put up with her vanity and abuse; however, despite this he's so fed up with her that he's just looking for an excuse to dump her."

As he explained this, Kyanna couldn't bring herself to believe the seemingly happy couple were on such bad terms. She turned to Cross and asked, "You're not serious?"

To this, Cross gave an all-to-familiar sadistic smile and said, "You don't believe me? Well, I'll tell you what, I bet I can prove my point without making an ass of myself that they are exactly how I said they are."

His arrogant confidence beginning to irritate her, Kyanna leered at Cross and said, "Okay, fine; but _**when**_ they prove you wrong, you have to keep shopping with me _and_ you'll pay for anything and everything! Deal?"

Cross smirked at Kyanna as he accepted the wager, he put out his right hand and as they shook hands he replied, "Deal!"

As he made his way towards the couple, he paused and turned to Kyanna with the same sadistic smile and said, "I can't wait for what I've got in mind for you when I win the bet." He then proceeded forward, leaving Kyanna with a noticeably pale complexion as she realized she'd forgotten to confirm what she'd have to do if he'd won the bet.

Walking over to where the young man stood in front of the changing rooms, Cross stood about three feet behind the him, took a pink colored two-piece off the rack and paused for a moment as he quickly pondered a topic to strike up a conversation. Moments later, Cross turned his head to the back of the young man and abruptly asked, "Hey man, your girlfriend drag you to this death trap too?"

The young man quickly turned his head to face Cross and, with an innocent smile, replied, "Heh, you kidding? The chance to see my girl wearing something damn near close to lingerie; like I'd pass up the chance to see that. How about you?"

Cross turned to face the young man entirely and replied with an embarrassed expression, "Well, kinda, sorta. You see that girl over there?" Cross nodded his head in Kyanna's direction, causing the young man to turn his sights on Kyanna, who in turn looked away in a surprised panic; "That's my girl, we just started dating, like, a week ago and she's already got me going swimsuit shopping."

The young man smirked at Cross, a slightly noticeable hint of jealousy in his eyes, and said, "Dang! Let me get this straight. That total bombshell is dating _ **you**_?!"

Cross shrugged his shoulders with a soft smile and replied, "I know, right? Truth is I'm a little nervous; I've heard horror stories about guys taking their girlfriends shopping only to say something stupid and then get ripped a new one."

The young man sighed as he commented, "Yeah, I hear ya." His tone definitely implied he'd already experienced the very subject Cross had just mentioned.

"Any advice for the fresh meat?" Cross asked as he feigned ignorance, playing to the man's inferiority complex.

Apparently, having someone genuinely seek his advice was not something this man had the chance to experience often, if ever at all; filled with a sudden sense of pride and confidence, the young man smiled almost arrogantly and said, "Well, I admit that I've had my fair share of moments, but I think I finally figured out a way to answer that one question every man fears most when clothes shopping with his girl."

"Oh," Cross stated, his tone implying an obvious sense of disbelief, "for real? Well then let's hear it, then."

The young man leaned in towards Cross and whispered, "You know how every woman likes to hear how pretty they are and stuff? Well, what better response than to say nothing then follow up with something like, 'You're so beautiful that I was left speechless', or something like that. I tell you, its flawless!"

Cross' eyes widened in shock, he honestly couldn't believe that someone would actually attempt to use one of the most bone-headed tactics in dating history. Resisting the urge to smack this fool straight through the wall, Cross felt he had to find another way to save him. "Um, you sure about that one dude? I gotta be honest, I've heard of that move before and, to be honest, I don't think it works."

"Naw man, I guarantee it will work, and when it does every man out there's gonna know it was me who made it work," the young man boasted, his puffed up chest full of naive pride, "and just to show you how sure I am, I'm gonna use it with my girl when she comes out."

Cross felt a sudden jolt of unease arise in the very pit of his stomach; while his plan to prove his abilities was made all the easier by this man's genuine stupidity, he began to feel guilty that this man, rather than he himself, was going to make an ass of himself, "My friend it sounds like a noble experiment, one that every man will benefit from, but like Prohibition, I promise you, it will end in a hail of bullets."

Cross' final attempt to save the fool fell on deaf ears as the young man turned towards the changing room door and whispered, "watch and learn."

As the young man rapped on the door, Cross extended his hand out towards the back of the man's head, stopping just four inches short of making contact. He was at the proverbial fork in the road; on the one hand, he could spare the fool to endure the consequences of his arrogance but live with the guilt that it was Cross himself that lead him there, or he could execute him and 'airlift' the body out of there before anyone could fully process that someone was just ethereally executed and he could spare the man, and more importantly himself, the pain of what was to come. Cross sighed a breath of defeat, while his heart was in the right place, Cross knew he couldn't just end someone's life without reason; he would end up having to repent for the sins of his own arrogance because of this in due time.

As Cross lowered his hand down to his side, the door to the changing room opened and out came a beautiful young woman around Kyanna's age. She was very attractive but Cross couldn't help but focus his attention on the darkness that was permeating from her person.

As she took another step forward, Cross instinctively took two steps back; this was not due to fear, but merely because he did not wish to be within arms reach when the inevitable came to pass. She momentarily turned her gaze to Cross before turning her attention to her companion, at which she smiled, posed and asked, "Well, how do I look? Does it look good on me?" Yet again, Cross took another step back, his upper back pressing against the racks carrying the various swimsuits.

The young man displayed a shocked expression as he kept his silence for a moment, he then relaxed his expression with a love-struck smile and replied in a manner so obviously exaggerated Cross instinctively reached into the left side of his blazer to grab the hilt of his obsideon sword, not for protection but to strike the fool down where he stood, "Oh wow babe... I was sorta just, left speechless by how beautiful you look in the bikini."

Needless to say, she did not take his false praise too kindly; in the following two minutes she had almost skillfully demeaned, disrespected, and emasculated the poor fool to where Cross felt he should have killed him right then and there just to spare him any further pain. The poor fool trudged out of the store a broken shell of a man, while she quickly changed out of the swimsuit then walked out of the store and in the opposite direction of her ex.

As for Cross, he slowly walked over to where Kyanna was until they stood side by side, neither of them exchanging glances. "So... how about I pay for the swimsuits and lunch and we never mention this again?" Cross asked, his tone more stoic than depressed.

Kyanna nodded in silent response then continued perusing the rest of the store's selections.

Five minutes had passed since that incident and things had begun to return to normal.

As Cross sorted through the seemingly limited selection of men's swimsuits, Nikki stepped out of the changing room wearing a blue two piece with an accompanying aqua blue sarong with coral design.

"I don't know, doesn't it look a little like the red one I already own?" Nikki asked aloud as she stood before the mirror self-appraising herself.

Tiffany stepped out wearing a polka-dotted bikini and said, "No way, besides it looks good on you; right Cross," Tiffany asked as the two girls eyed the young man waiting for his response.

"Yeah, it does," Cross responded, walking up to the two girls, "for girls with slender figures, sarongs are a good choice since the lower part draws attention by being partly hidden and the top piece remains revealing, they accentuate your entire image."

"Huh, I guess that makes sense," Nikki said as a hint of gleefulness showed on her face.

At this, Tiffany turned to Cross, posed and asked, "How about mine?"

"Well, your bust and hips are equally balanced so a two piece definitely suits you best," Cross explained seemingly ignorant of the effect his words had on Tiffany.

"Well, either way, considering the fact you both were crafted by a master craftsman only further adds to the quality the two of you possess," Cross stated further, leaving the two young ladies speechless and with flushed-red faces.

Nikki grabbed Tiffany by the arm, pulled her to the side, and in a hushed whisper, asked, "Okay, is he doing that on purpose? Or is he just being stupid?"

Tiffany paused for a second as she pondered the question then replied, "Gotta be honest, I'm not sure. Maybe he's just _angelically_ naive or something."

As the two exchanged their thoughts, Audrey stepped out of the dressing room sporting a light pink frilled, solid red two piece, though unlike Tiffany's and Nikki's, the top piece was designed to cover the bulk of her chest rather than reveal any cleavage, regardless though Cross personally felt this design suited Audrey quite nicely.

Realizing the others were looking, she held up her hair slightly with her right arm while tucking the left arm on her hips, curved her body slightly sideways and, with her typical arrogant smile, asked, "Well, totally hot, right?"

"Umm, Audrey, isn't that design almost exactly the same as the one you already own?" Nikki asked with a mild hint of sarcasm laced in the question.

"Yeah, so, I like what I like. Besides, you know I look good in anything, anyways," she replied boastfully, taking little, if any, stock in Nikki's honest opinion. Audrey then turned her eyes to Cross and, though with equally or even lesser regards, said, "Well, seeing as your the only guy here, I guess you can give me your opinion."

Placing the pointer and thumb of his right hand on his chin while cradling his right elbow with his left hand, Cross paused for a moment as he further evaluated Audrey's appearance. While Audrey's ethnicity was French-American, her cream colored complexion was almost equal to that of Tiffany's who was Caucasian... "taking this into consideration, the light pink frills that divide the solid red fabric act more as a bridge with her cream colored complexion which, rather than drawing attention to individual sections, causes the viewer to see her attractiveness as a whole."

Cross' expression suddenly shifted from focused to surprised/confusion as he noticed the three girls displayed discernible expressions of shock coupled with embarrassment. Audrey in particular displayed these emotions very vividly.

"Wha-wha-what the hell are you saying!" she howled girlishly as she bolted back into the dressing room, the sound of clothes ruffling loudly.

Cross turned to Tiffany and Nikki and asked, "Was I thinking out loud again?" To which, the two girls nodded in unison.

Minutes later Audrey reemerged from her dressing room wearing her usual red Lolita outfit; the hastily folded swimsuit tucked beneath her arm. She turned to the others with a scowl on her face and insisted, "I just wanna make one thing clear, I'm only gonna buy this because I like it! Definitely NOT because of all those half-assed compliments you just said? Got it?!"

She walked over to Cross till she was directly in front of him, glared directly into his brown eyes and asked, "Got... it?"

Cross put up both his hands in a stopping motion and replied, "I got it, I got it! Jeez! Pardon me for being honest."

Audrey's face went red again as she frowned and turned away from Cross, "Unbelievable! Guys think all it takes is a few nice words and girls will suddenly be all over them. Well, if you think I'm that easy, think again. I'm a girl of standards, you know!"

As Audrey finish talking, the group's attention was drawn to one of the store clerks standing in front of one of the changing stalls. She appeared very flustered as she apologized wholeheartedly, "I really am sorry, ma'am. But this is the last item we have for the size you asked for."

As the four continued watching, Cross and Audrey moved next to Tiffany and Nikki, their curiosity equally peaked as the others. Moments later, the door to the stall opened and Kyanna stepped out.

"WAH! Kyanna, is that too small?" Cross cried aloud, equally as entranced as the other girls.

Kyanna was wearing a simple black colored bikini, which at first glance was a size or two too small. As she ran her thumbs through the bikini top's laces, her breasts gave a hearty bounce; she examined herself in the mirror and muttered, "Well, I guess it will have to do. Though it is a little tight, there really isn't anything to do about it. They don't exactly carry a variety for larger sizes."

"Oh my," stated the clerk.

"Crap," Nikki muttered.

"Damn it," growled Audrey.

"Wow," gasped Tiffany.

"Thank you!" Cross laughed, his head and gaze turned up towards the heavens. At this Audrey glared at Cross, obviously irritated and mostly enraged, and punched him square in the jaw. This time, apparently, she had hit him hard enough to where he momentarily lost his balance; though, the pain she felt this time around was substantially more severe.

As Cross steadily regained his composure, Audrey continued glaring at him as she vented, "Oh, shut up! Boobs aren't everything, you know!"

"What's with you guys?" Kyanna asked when she walked over to the group.

Nikki and Tiffany silently continued to contemplate the various 'difference' between Kyanna's breasts and their own, while Audrey turned to Kyanna and gave her an equally frustrated expression. Kyanna quickly noticed the attention Audrey was giving her breasts and took the opportunity to tease the poor girl. Kyanna purposely bent forward, allowing her breasts to hang down, smiled sarcastically and asked, "Ah, what's the matter? Are feeling a little... insecure?"

"No! I'm just a little pissed off for some reason," Audrey muttered rigidly.

Kyanna's smile widened further; she patted Audrey's head like a child, and further teased, "Ah, don't worry about it; when you grow up into an adult yours will be just as big." Kyanna laughed meanly as Audrey's face went from light pink to vermilion red. All the while, Nikki and Tiffany were busy sizing up their own breasts.

Audrey's patience finally ran out; with a loud growl, she reached out and grabbed Kyanna's chest and snarled, "Damn these fucking things! They don't need to be this fucking big! And who the hell said they need to be so damn soft!"

As Kyanna cried out fearfully and in pain, Cross walked over, grabbed and pulled Audrey away from Kyanna, "Okay, Audrey that's too much!"

Audrey glared at Cross, her face still deep red, as she gasped for breath; she paused for a second as she tried desperately to hide the breaking in her voice, "Well... whose fault do you think it is? I'm sorry if I wasn't born with cow tits!" Cross didn't have to read her darkness to see Audrey was hurting emotionally; "Besides, at least when I go shopping they have clothes in my fucking size," Audrey continued as she held up a piece of fabric in her hand.

Cross and Audrey simultaneously glanced at the piece of cloth in Audrey's hand before she grabbed both ends and displayed a black bikini top. As Audrey slowly turned her head to face behind her, Cross slowly lifted his head and caught an eye full.

As Kyanna meekly covered her exposed breasts with her hands, her face went a shade of red that would have made Audrey's hair pale in comparison. Even in her moment of embarrassment, she could tell that Cross was equally shocked as his gawking face gave away his embarrassment. She quickly reached out and took back the bikini top, reeled back and cried, "STOP STARING!"

In a split second, Kyanna had punched Cross square center in the face, knocking the poor Angel on his back and leaving him semi-conscious. As she ran into the nearest available stall, she slammed the door shut, leaving the three girls and the female store clerk to deal with Cross.

Fortunately, the Angel of Darkness had acquired a hearty constitution over the years, which gave him impressive durability. In a matter of minutes Cross was already back on his feet, though still bobbing side to side.

Nikki placed her hands on the sides of Cross' face, steadying the unbalanced angel, and stared at his face for a moment. "Wow, you'd think she'd have given you a broken nose or something with how hard she hit you. But you don't even have a bruise; impressive," Nikki stated in awe before Cross stood up causing her to remove her hands from his face.

"God, the only other person who punched me that hard was Lucifer," Cross stated as he winced when he touched the base of his nose.

Nikki cocked her head slightly to the side, smiled and gave a slight laugh, "Really? Well, in that case, you'd be smart not to piss her off."

"Ya, think."

Cross and Nikki exchanged a short chuckle before turning their attention to the changing room door opening. Kyanna slowly stepped out, her face still very red, turned to the clerk, then handed her the black bikini and quietly muttered, "I think I'll just go with the other one I was looking at." The clerk nodded without a word then walked off towards the front.

Cross walked over to Kyanna, more aware of her chest then he was before, and attempted to say something. Though before he could say a word, Kyanna turned away from him and said, "I'm gonna go ahead and pay while you guys keep shopping. I'd like to be alone for a moment, anyways." Cross extended his hand towards her as she walked off; though he figured it best to leave her alone for a while.

While he already knew the reason behind it, her darkness had become very thick in comparison to any other time since they had met. He could sense that she felt sad and humiliated; he turned to Tiffany, who in turn gave him a look that said: go.

Cross walked outside the store and into the mall walkway; he turned to the side and found Kyanna sitting on a wooden bench against the wall. As he walked over to her, he could see she had her head tilted downward. As he stopped two feet short of the empty spot next to her, she turned her head away as if she had known it was him and said, "Sorry, but can you just leave me alone for a little bit?"

Cross said nothing.

"I'm not mad at you or anything, I just... I just need a moment, okay," Kyanna persisted with hints of her voice breaking.

Cross remained silent and did not walk away.

Kyanna was becoming further irritated, "Look, man, just give a girl some space okay? Is that too much to ask for? I mean, for God's sake, I was just humiliated and I'm trying real hard to keep myself composed, so..."

Cross stepped in front of Kyanna and squatted down till his face was looking up at hers. She turned her head even further to the side as to not meet Cross' gaze; Cross paused for a moment then said, "You know Kyanna, being able to see a person's darkness also gives me a fairly good idea about that person's 'light'."

Kyanna glanced at Cross for a moment then away again and asked, "Come on man, am I suppose to know what that even means?"

"You say you feel humiliated and I can understand that; but Kyanna...," Cross paused as he placed his hand on hers, "you don't need to feel humiliated because something like this won't make me think less of you."

Kyanna's expression softened as she turned and looked Cross in the eyes. Cross gently placed his right hand on her cheek, to which she tilted her head to the side and cradled her head in his hand, "Kyanna, in the last few days I've learned a few things about you. You work hard to pay your bills, you manage to support your one year old son, despite your age, all by yourself, you've stood your ground even against a bunch of thugs, and you have shown tolerance towards an Angel of Darkness where even angels could only show discrimination."

Tears began to slowly stream down Kyanna's face as Cross continued, "I will not lie, I have seen darkness even in you, but... I have also seen enough light to say, without doubt, that I've no reason to think less of you."

As a few more tears streamed down, Kyanna smiled at Cross then reached out and wrapped her arms around his neck, embracing him in a tender hug. Cross wrapped his arms around her sides and felt her darkness begin to steadily dissipate.

As they slowly pulled away from each other, Kyanna stared affectionately into Cross' eyes and whispered, "Okay, I've officially fallen for an angel."

Cross smiled and laughed softly at the young lady's confession; after he stood up he offered her his hand and lifted her to her feet. Cross then grabbed her shopping bag with his left hand and held her hand with his right as he smiled at her and asked, "Shall we go join the others?"

Kyanna returned his smile with her own and replied, "Naw, they can come to us when they're ready. Besides, I'd still like to be alone for a little while longer."

"How strange," Cross commented, "for some reason, I suddenly feel the same."

to be continued...


	7. Chapter 7 Sky Garden

**Hey everyone, sorry I've not uploaded for a while now, things have been rather hectic here on this end.**

 **Well, chapter 7 is more of a side-line story introducing some more familiar Huniepop faces; but worry not, already working on next chapter where the main focus will be back on the OMC and Kyanna.**

Chapter 7: Sky Garden

Imagine, for a second, a land of lush greenery, rivers that glittered as though lined with diamonds, countless flowers of all different shapes, sizes, and colors, the sky a vibrant shade of white and pink. And through out the land, various mythical creatures roaming the lands, seas, and sky of this lustrous realm of magic and wonder; in this particular case, two archangels and one mortal with ties to the ethereal.

"So this is Sky Garden, huh?" Chris asked, his tone heavily implying his lack of impress, "Gotta be honest, it gives off a strong smell of cotton candy."

"You get used to it," replied Archangel Raphael walking three feet side by side Chris, while Archangel Gabriel led the way with a cheerful hum in his voice.

"By the way, this Pagan that God's got on the payroll; were you serious about it being 'Venus'?" Chris inquired doubtfully.

Archangel Raphael turned to Chris as they continued walking and replied, "Yes; I believe Roman mortals referred to her as the Goddess of Love and Beauty. Though, when the time came for the would-be false gods to submit to father, only she proved wise enough to submit."

Chris paused as he pondered a thought before asking, "So what happened to the ones that didn't submit?"

The two archangels came to sudden stop, as did Chris a second later; Gabriel turned to face Chris with a non-characteristically serious face and said, "Pride comes before the fall. They foolishly thought they could stand against God and when they took up arms against Him..." Gabriel paused for a moment.

"They... what?" Chris inquired curiously.

Raphael took a step towards Chris and, while his demeanor was that of his usual calm and empathetic, his aura was so serious it bordered menacing, said, "God sent us."

With those three words, Chris knew well enough the details without having to have them explained. God had sent the 'Archangel Trinity' as Chris himself would usually refer to them as; Archangels Gabriel, Raphael, and Michael, quite literally the three oldest and most powerful Archangels, angels in general, in all of Creation.

The three of them proceeded forward until they found themselves standing before the moat and drawbridge of a medieval style castle, to which a young man appeared atop the wall looking down at the three warriors. "Halt, who comes to the castle of her Ladyship, the Goddess Venus?"

As Gabriel opened his mouth the speak, Raphael stepped forward and beat him to it, "We are the emissaries of God, here to speak with the one granted permission to govern this dimension."

The young man atop the wall squinted at the archangel, his doubts getting the best of him, "'Emissaries of God'? And which god would that be exactly?"

Raphael's face went from professionally stoic to deeply insulted almost instantly, his aura reflected this quite accurately; while Gabriel was younger than Raphael, and therefore weaker, he knew full well that angering either of his older brothers was never a wise idea.

"'Which god'?" Archangel Raphael repeated angrily, "You retched, little cur; I, alone, have the power to vaporize this whole dimension, and you dare to ask me which god I _**SERVE**_!" Raphael's last word echoed with a thundering force that caused the stone walls of the castle to creak, and the little man atop the wall to tremble with unimaginable fear.

Raphael stretched out his hand towards the drawbridge and gathered ethereal particles in the palm of his hand. As he did this the bridge groaned, then fell accompanied by the sounds of the massive chains clinking and chinking, kicking up dirt as the wooden frame crashed on top of the stone base.

As the dust cleared, the light in Raphael's hand dispersed and he lowered his hand to his side. Considering this as a sign of consent the three emissaries made their way into the castle. Once across the bridge the same man who was atop the bridge was now standing before them with a large spear in hand, foolishly training the tip on Archangel Raphael. Upon seeing this the archangel raised his hand again and prepared to vaporize the frightened little man, until a young woman jumped in between the two shouting, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, easy okay. Let's just chill out for a moment, okay?"

Raphael lowered his hand again though he was still visibly aggravated as the young woman stepped forward and apologized, "Sorry about that, he's new. Just started last week so he's not too familiar with how things are or whose who, ya know."

With a pair of large, butterfly-like, fairy wings patterned in pink on her back, the young woman sported a slender physique, with curved hips and small breasts. Her pigtailed hair a solid shade of pink extended barely an inch or so above her shoulders, which drew attention to her emerald green eyes, with two silver antennae extending near the points where her pigtails were tied. She also wore a white collar necklace with a pink choker top that had a red heart shape on the front; though the thing that immediately caught Chris' attention was the girl's outfit; calling it revealing was definitely an extreme understatement. A pink and white baby doll lingerie that made no effort at all to conceal her light pink panties with a purple butterfly attached to the front. She wore light pink stockings that covered from the lower parts of her thighs all the way down to her feet which were covered by dainty-purple ballerina shoes.

Archangel Raphael glared at the young lady with a piercing gaze that could easily rip through steel. He took a single step towards the two and growled, "You think his naivety will absolve him? That his foolishness will go without consequence? This fool pointed his weapon at an Archangel, give me a good reason why I should over look that."

Chris could tell the young woman was quickly being overwhelmed by the Archangel's staggering presence as she was visibly trembling and sweating profusely. Chris quickly approached the archangel, grabbing him by the arm despite every fiber of his being telling him not to, and, now enduring almost all of the archangel's concentrated aggression as Raphael turned his attention on him, whispered, "Remember archangel, we have our orders, and I doubt they include causing an incident. Besides, have you forgotten, it is not our place to judge and condemn others."

Raphael's presence began to steadily decline from aggressive to passive as his demean regained its usual stoic appearance.

"Besides, do not forget that killing someone without _his_ consent is a fool's gamble; one I do not intend to wager my life on," Chris pressed as the archangel turned his gaze away from him and onto the two people in front of him.

Raphael paused for a moment as a bead of cold sweat ran down the side of his face; as the image of the back of a pale, elderly man dressed in black holding a cane in his right hand flashed before his mental eyes, the Archangel quickly realized that the young man next to him not only stopped him from causing an incident, but may have certainly just saved his life.

"Hmph, so be it. We have more pressing matters anyway," replied the archangel calmly, though those around him could still sense a hint of aggression, and perhaps even a sliver of fear.

Breathing a sigh of relief, the young woman before them raised her had with a bright smile and said, "Well, in that case, hows about I give our ever important V.I.P.'s the grand tour? What do ya say?"

"Appreciate the offer but...," Chris replied, "God doesn't look too kindly on procrastination; especially from those he's given direct orders to. So maybe next time; until then we should probably just talk to this... Venus, as soon as possible."

"Hmmm, okay, okay. In that case, follow me and I'll lead you straight to her throne room. By the way, my name's Kyu, I'm one of Venus' top love fairies, so just leave all your needs to little ol' me," Kyu replied in a quirky tone as she spun around and started off down the corridor.

Raphael was the first to follow her, though not before giving the young guardsman one last silent glare which sent a sub-zero chill down the poor man's spine, resulting in him fleeing hastily in the opposite direction.

As Gabriel made for the same direction as Kyu and Raphael, he was side by side Chris when Chris inquired, "Kyu? As in the letter? And did she just say 'love fairy'?"

Gabriel placed his hand on Chris' shoulder, smiled, and said, "Yeah, gotta admit; me, Michael, and Raphael were a little concerned when Dad first made those." Chris turned his head to Gabriel as he listen to the archangel's explanation, "At first we figured he was either trying something new, or that he was just sorta 'out of it' because Lucifer had rebelled not long before. But, considering what the end results were... can't say I, personally, didn't like 'em."

Chris tuned his head back towards Kyu and replied in whisper, "Yeah, I get what you mean. I mean that outfit..."

"Say no more, my friend. I don't know what Dad was thinking, but I know what I like and I like what I see," Gabriel professed somewhat perversely as he eyed Kyu from behind before hastily speeding past his brother and striking a conversation with Kyu.

His brow furled in annoyance, Chris quietly whispered to himself, "Yeah, careful fool, God catches you licking your chops like a hungry wolf, and he's gonna give you something to chew on," before making his way to the rest of the group.

After about a two minute walk down a large stone corridor, though it felt more like ten minutes for Chris and Raphael as they forced themselves to watch the train wreck that was Gabriel attempt to cozy up to the provocatively dressed love fairy, Kyu led the three emissaries into a brightly lit room.

With white marble floors, walls of bright cobblestone lined with stone pillars, and a vibrant red carpet leading from just before the room's entrance all the way up to a large throne lined with gold and red cushioning. A large wall of pink, red, and yellow roses making for a lovely background behind the throne.

And as the four made their way further into the room, Chris' attention was pulled to the woman seated on the throne.

In terms of appearance alone, she was worthy of the title Goddess of Love and Beauty. The Goddess was clad in what one would presume to be a stereotypical Roman style robe colored red and white with pure gold bracelets and laces. Her long hair, which trailed down to her hips, was a light shade of green that paired with her emerald green eyes. Atop her head was a golden wreath and on her feet she wore authentic Roman-style sandals that, at first glance, appeared to be made of gold.

As the three emissaries approached the throne, they stopped a few meters short before Raphael pressed his right arm across his chest in salute and initiated the conversation, "Venus; good to see you are well. I trust you are having no difficulties managing this dimension."

The goddess eyed Raphael silently for a moment, possibly considering the most appropriate response, then let out a short sigh and replied, "Gentlemen; while I can respect the obvious difference in responsibilities between myself and yourselves. If you are going to be starting dogfights in the world that is under my responsibility, I would at least prefer a certain level of professionalism and ask that you inform me when you're going to deploy one of your 'rogue-angel hunters'; preferably before they leave human size craters in populated suburban areas."

Chris and Gabriel quickly exchanged glances before returning their focus to Venus.

As for Raphael, his eyes squinted for a moment, though for the same reasons as Chris and Gabriel. "This 'angel-hunter' you speak of; you've encountered them?" Raphael inquired stoically.

Venus sat back relaxed on her throne, slightly resting her cheek on the knuckles of her hand before replying, "Not personally, or at all for that matter. One of my subordinates was in the area when she saw a flash of light that was quickly followed by gale force winds that are nowhere near appropriate for this time of year. Shortly after, upon closer investigation, said subordinate came across what she reported to be an empty vessel centered around what looked like fossilized impressions of giant wings; not to mention a number of dead bodies littering the sidewalks."

Chris sighed out loud before expressing what his two companions were thinking, "yup, that's him alright. And if he's killing rogue angels then that must mean he's still in one piece."

It was at this that Venus turned her gaze towards Chris; pausing for a moment to appraise him, she leaned her head off her fingers and, towards Raphael, asked bluntly, "Since when do you allow mortals to get involved with the happenings of Heaven and its associates?"

"Since God deemed him worthy enough to be allowed," Raphael replied equally bluntly.

Venus took another look at Chris before expressing a sense of disappointment, "Honestly, would it really inconvenience God to deem worthy someone just a little better looking?"

As Chris responded in obvious shock and appall, a stifled snort of laughter was momentarily heard from both his archangel companions. Understanding his place, Chris retained his patience and replied, "I'm here to help fight a _**war**_ , not perform in some popularity contest. My attractiveness is irrelevant."

Venus raised one of her eye brows slightly in interest. As small, yet visible smile appeared as she lifted her head from her knuckles and replied, "I suppose that's an _acceptable_ response. Though a typical one none the less."

Chris' left eye twitched in irritation for a moment, but then remembered that his responsibilities, for the moment, had to be ensuring Cross' well-being. Grudgingly, Chris held his tongue and kept silent, though every fiber in his being was burning to put the seemingly arrogant goddess in her place.

As Gabriel and Raphael watched Chris from the corner of their eyes, they both smiled, seemingly proud that the young warrior chose to honor patience above defending his own pride. At this, Raphael returned his gaze to Venus and continued, "Regardless, he's devout and he's more than capable... that's all that really matters. But I digress, this individual you speak of, if it is who we believe it is to be, then he is not one of our rouge-hunters."

This time, Venus' eye-brow raised itself a little higher at the Archangel's comment; despite her now piqued interest, the goddess once again rested her head on her hand before asking, "if that is the case, then what is he? Besting a Seraphim, who are specialized in combat, is no small feat. But to do so with such efficiency and lack of collateral damage only further emphasizes this individual's capability."

Chris and Gabriel exchanged unsure glances again. It wasn't as though Cross' existence nor his allegiance to Heaven were a secret or anything; but whether it was wise or not to inform all those around of a walking powerhouse like Cross was a matter of debate.

Fortunately, Raphael was the wiser of the group and he was about to prove it; "I'll be blunt Venus, he's an Anomaly."

And with that single phrase, Venus, and even Kyu's, interests were piqued, "Really? An Anomaly? Those are the one's born outside of God's grand plan or something of the sorts, correct?" Raphael nodded. "And as I recall correctly, they're perhaps the only entities in all of creation that can move and act outside of God's omniscience, right?" Venus inquired with a sizable hint of diabolical glee in her tone.

While it would have pleased Chris immensely to take the goddess down a notch, such honors would go to Raphael, "Technically you are correct; however, presently there are three entities that we know of that can track this Anomaly with a level of certainty." Venus leaned forward as she hung on the Archangel's words, "The first, obviously, being other Anomalies; the second, in this particular case, would be Chris here," Raphael gestured towards Chris standing behind him, "and the last is...," Raphael paused for a moment.

"The last is..." Venus repeated eagerly.

Raphael, as well as Chris and Gabriel, went slightly pale. It was not that they did not know about the third individual, it was that they feared this individual both vehemently and immensely. "Well, I believe its a safe presumption to say that the last choice is, quite literally, the _last_ choice," Raphael stated in a manner emphasizing his desire to not speak any further of the last individual.

"Oh, come on. You make it sound like that last one is some kind of monster or something," Kyu retorted childishly.

"Monster is an understatement. He's worse!" Chris responded to Kyu's comment.

"Oh really? Well, exactly who is this big, scary, boogieman that has you battle-hardened warriors shaking in your boots?" Kyu childishly mocked.

It took only one word for Chris to fully answer Kyu's question, and the answer sent a stone-cold chill down the backs of everyone in the room, "Death."

Kyu's creamy complexion suddenly went so pale it was nearing a shade of blue; the feeling of fear more evident than uncertainty in her voice was apparent as she stuttered her response, "D... Death? As in Death, Death? As in..."

Before Kyu could finish her statement, Chris reached inside the left side of his jacket and pulled out a small, rectangular book. Approximately 6 inches long and 3 ½ inches wide, it was a fairly small book bound in bright brown leather.

As Chris flipped through the pages near the end of the book, he suddenly paused for a moment as he visually skimmed the page before reciting the verse, "And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, as Hell followed with him, and power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with the sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth; a pale horse: and his name that sat on him... was Death.1"

A cold bead of sweat ran down the side of Kyu's face; while she had never actually met the horseman personally, she had heard rumors and tales of his awesome power. "Um... so question, is he... really as freakishly powerful as everyone says he is or are those just rumors blown way out of proportion?" Kyu inquired with an obvious tone of fear and panic laced between every other word.

"Let me put it to you this way," Chris retorted with both sarcasm and vehement seriousness, "even an Ethereal as arrogant and self-righteous as Lucifer would dare not cross him."

The sound of Kyu swallowing a large lump in her throat was heard by all in the room, though before she could speak any further Venus spoke out, "Well, needless to say, I'm sure Death has far more important matters to deal with then the likes of us or one little Anomaly. Though, it does go without say, we should not press our fortune and ask for his assistance on this matter."

"Agreed," Chris and the two archangels stated simultaneously.

As all in the room paused to let the air in the room settle, Raphael returned his sights to Venus and continued, "Anyway, it's imperative that we make contact with this individual as soon as possible. That being said, we'd like you to raise the barrier you have placed around the area we believe he's currently positioned."

A confused expression suddenly draped itself over Venus' beautiful face; pausing momentarily before responding, she glanced over at Kyu whose expression was identically confused before looking back at the elder archangel and responded, "What barrier?"

"The... barrier. The one you have placed over the city where the rouge angel was killed."

"Archangel, with all due respect, you must be mistaken. I've no knowledge of any barrier, or anything remotely similar for that matter, being used on the planet I've been given charge of," Venus replied confidently with a soft, albeit somewhat conceited, smile.

Raphael turned to his brother and exchanged non-verbal glances with one another before turning back to Venus and replying, "Our Intel has informed us otherwise; records indicate that lately, denizens of both Heaven _and_ Hell have been, particularly lower level ones, have been unable to even go near the city, let alone function within it."

Venus leaned forward on her throne, her prestigious demeanor having been cast aside, as she insisted, "Archangel, I know what I'm telling you, the city in question..."

Venus once again turned to Kyu and asked, "Kyu, what city was that again?"

"Glenberry," Kyu responded in a non-characteristically serious manner.

"Ah, yes," Venus returned her attention to the three emissaries, "I can assure you I do not possess any type of magic or spell that can limit or prevent the influence of angels; demons, maybe; but not angels. And I certainly did not place any such thing over the city of Glenberry."

Raphael and Gabriel both turned to Chris who quickly responded, "As far as I know, Cross doesn't possess an ability to set up a barrier of such caliber, let alone one strong enough to be placed over an entire city."

Gabriel turned to Raphael, "Could the Intel be wrong?"

"Impossible, Father would have seen through it."

"Could it be the work of another Anomaly. One none of us, Cross included, have any knowledge of?" Chris asked hesitantly as history had taught him that Anomalies were looked down upon enough as it is.

As Raphael pondered the thought, he placed his chin between his thumb and pointer finger and quietly replied, "It is a possibility."

After two or three seconds, Raphael dropped his hands to his sides and turned his attention on Chris, "Okay, since this barrier appears to apply strictly to spiritual entities such as angels and demons, you'll have to go there and perform recognizance, since your abilities won't be limited like ours."

"I can do that," Chris replied in all seriousness, "what exactly should I be looking for?"

"This barrier is limiting both angels _and_ demons, so we may be looking at the work of a third party, or even the work of rouge denizen from either respective domains. Either way, ultimately this barrier is interfering with the 'Balance', so it needs to be removed," Raphael explained, "for now, find out what you can and use your better judgment."

Chris nodded.

"Wait a moment, please," Venus cried out as Chris was preparing to leave; the three emissaries stopped and quickly turned to the goddess, "please allow me to offer my assistance; I am responsible for this world after all." 

Chris turned to the archangels, who in turn looked to the goddess and nodded silently in agreement.

"Kyu, go with the young man, guide him to the best of your abilities," Venus ordered the love fairy.

"Ugh, why does it have to be me? I'm a love fairy, not a warrior," Kyu complained childishly.

"Relax, if worse comes to worse, I'll keep you safe," Chris replied reassuringly to the distressed fairy.

A glum look of disbelief shadowed Kyu's face as she whispered to herself, "Great, the only thing standing between me and something powerful enough to ward off angels and demons is a walking fish-bone."

As Kyu fluttered by, sagging her limbs like the wilted leaves of a dying plant, Raphael smiled and stated, "You need not worry young lady; after all you'll be traveling along side the Vessel of God."

"Right, the Vessel of God."

Silence fell on the room for two seconds before Kyu and Venus fully processed what Raphael had just said, "THE WHAAAAAAAAAAT!?"

 **to be continued.**

1Revelation 6 Verse 7 & 8\. Yes, I know Verse 8 is misquoted, I did this intentionally for dramatic effect. Don't stone me!


End file.
